EPS function

Description

In MedCalc, all real numbers are stored in 64-bits double-precision format (Double-Precision Floating Point; IEEE® Standard 754). Because there is an infinite number of real numbers, but only a finite number of 64-bits double-precision numbers, not all real numbers can be represented precisely in computer memory, and there is a small gap between each double-precision number and the next larger double-precision number.

The size of this gap, which is the absolute error of a number stored in computer memory, is returned with the EPS function.

EPS() returns the maximum floating-point relative error of a number stored in computer memory.

EPS(x) returns the floating-point absolute error of the number x. It is the distance from ABS(x) and the next largest floating-point number of the same precision as x. The argument x can be a single number or a matrix. When it is a matrix, the function returns a matrix with the same dimensions and with the EPS function applied to all elements.

Examples

EPS() equals EPS(1) and returns 2.2204460492503E-016 (see Scientific notation and E-notation)

EPS(3) returns 4.4408920985006E-016

Calculator

See also

• Mathematical functions

External links

• Machine epsilon on Wikipedia.