[Numpy-discussion] Piecewise functions.

[Alan G Isaac]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005, Andrea Riciputi apparently wrote: 
> I've already tried something like this, but it doesn't work since f1 
> and f2 return not valid values outside the range over they are 
> defined. Perhaps an example could clarify; suppose that f1(x) = 1./ 
> sqrt(1 - x**2) for x <= 1, and f2(x) = 1./sqrt(x**2 - 1) for x > 1. 

> Your suggestion, as the other I've tried, fails with a 
> "OverflowError: math range error". 

If you do it as I suggested, they should not I believe be 
evaluated outside of their range.  So your function must be 
generating an overflow error within this range.


>>> import math
>>> import random
>>> def f1(x): return math.sqrt(1-x**2)
...
>>> def f2(x): return 1./math.sqrt(x**2-1)
...
>>> def f(x): return x<=1 and f1(x) or f2(x)
...
>>> d = [random.uniform(0,2) for i in range(20)]
>>> fd = [f(x) for x in d]

Works fine.

Cheers,
Alan Isaac