Problem 371. Decimal Comparison

Created by @bmtran (Bryant Tran)

Solve Later

{"relationships":[{"relationshipType":"http://schemas.mathworks.com/matlab/code/2013/relationships/document","targetMode":"","relationshipId":"rId1","target":"/matlab/document.xml"},{"relationshipType":"http://schemas.mathworks.com/matlab/code/2013/relationships/output","targetMode":"","relationshipId":"rId2","target":"/matlab/output.xml"}],"parts":[{"partUri":"/matlab/document.xml","relationship":[],"contentType":"application/vnd.mathworks.matlab.code.document+xml","content":"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<w:document xmlns:w=\"http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main\"><w:body><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"text\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr><w:b/></w:rPr><w:t>Background</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"text\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:t>A utility of particular interest to Cody and other MATLAB ventures is comparing the equality of two numbers. In computing, numbers can be stored in a number of ways, but they all share the trait of being stored as a binary number. As such, the equals operator in MATLAB is checking the bits of one stored number against the bits of another stored number. In this problem, I ask that we move away from this binary representation and comparison of numbers back into the decimal domain.</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"text\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr><w:b/></w:rPr><w:t>Problem</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"text\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:t>Write a function that takes a character input that represents a number that we wish to compare against,</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t> </w:t></w:r><w:r><w:rPr><w:i/></w:rPr><w:t>n1</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t>, and a double input that represents the other number,</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t> </w:t></w:r><w:r><w:rPr><w:i/></w:rPr><w:t>n2</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t>. Output</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t> </w:t></w:r><w:r><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:cs=\"monospace\"/></w:rPr><w:t>true</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t> if the numbers are equal to the precision of</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t> </w:t></w:r><w:r><w:rPr><w:i/></w:rPr><w:t>n1</w:t></w:r><w:r><w:t>.</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"text\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr><w:b/></w:rPr><w:t>Example</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val=\"code\"/></w:pPr><w:r><w:t><![CDATA[    n1 = '12.3456'\n    n2 = 12.3456\n    output = true\n\n    n1 = '12.34567432'\n    n2 = 12.3456\n    output = false]]></w:t></w:r></w:p></w:body></w:document>"},{"partUri":"/matlab/output.xml","contentType":"text/xml","content":"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\" ?><embeddedOutputs><metaData><evaluationState>manual</evaluationState><layoutState>code</layoutState><outputStatus>ready</outputStatus></metaData><outputArray type=\"array\"/><regionArray type=\"array\"/></embeddedOutputs>"}]}

Solve

Solution Stats

420 Solutions
78 Solvers

Last Solution submitted on Aug 06, 2020

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

3 Comments

3 Comments

Jan on 4 Mar 2012

It is not getting clear why '12.3456' and 12.3456789 should be accepted as equal.

Andrew Dobrovolc on 14 Aug 2017

the second test in the test suite is incorrect, it should be a negative assertion.

Siddhant Shenoy on 26 Mar 2019

Yes, I completely agree with the other comments. The second test case is incorrect. '12.3456' is not equal to 12.3456789 which when rounded off to 4 decimal places becomes 12.3457
The 50 solvers yet (as of 26/03/19) are undeserving of their title as 'Solvers'.

Solution Comments

Solution 1435729

1 Comment

1 Comment

bainhome on 9 Apr 2018

Elegant!

Problem Recent Solvers78

Problem Tags

Problem 371. Decimal Comparison

Solution Stats

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Problem Recent Solvers78

Suggested Problems

More from this Author56

Problem Tags

Problem 371. Decimal Comparison

Solution Stats

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Problem Recent Solvers78

Suggested Problems

More from this Author56

Problem Tags

Players