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Hands-On Data Analysis with NumPy and pandas

You're reading from   Hands-On Data Analysis with NumPy and pandas Implement Python packages from data manipulation to processing

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Product type Paperback
Published in Jun 2018
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781789530797
Length 168 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Curtis Miller Curtis Miller
Author Profile Icon Curtis Miller
Curtis Miller
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Special numeric values

In addition to dtype objects, NumPy introduces special numeric values: nan and inf. These can arise in mathematical computations. Not A Number (nan). It indicates that a value that should be numeric is, in fact, not defined mathematically. For example, 0/0 yields nan. Sometimes, nan is also used to signify missing information; for example, pandas uses this. inf indicates a quantity that is arbitrarily large, so in practice, it means larger than any number the computer can conceive of. -inf is also defined and it means arbitrarily small. This could occur if a numeric operation blows up, that is, grows rapidly without bounds.

Nothing is ever equal to nan; it makes no sense for something undefined to be equal to something else. You need to use the NumPy function isnan to identify nan. While the == sign does not work for nan, it does work for inf....

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