topic Re: 0^0 in SAS Programming

0^0

oves — Mon, 20 May 2019 19:10:10 GMT

data test;
x=2**3;
y=0**0;
run;

Results:
x=8
y=.
In the log as for y: NOTE: Invalid argument(s) to the exponential operator "**".

In another software (tested in R): 0**0 = 1

Question: How to weite this in SAS to get 1 as the result?

Re: 0^0

PaigeMiller — Mon, 20 May 2019 19:49:19 GMT

Well, it's not equal to 1 according to many authorities, it has no agreed upon value, so SAS is giving a reasonable answer, as is R.

According to Wikipedia:

The debate over the definition of has been going on at least since the early 19th century. At that time, most mathematicians agreed that , until in 1821 Cauchy^[13] listed along with expressions like in a table of indeterminate forms

The debate between Cauchy and Libri got rather heated.

And as everyone knows, I never disagree with Augustin-Louis Cauchy.

Re: 0^0

SASKiwi — Mon, 20 May 2019 19:54:19 GMT

Wow, so Twitter has been going since 1831! You learn something new every day

Re: 0^0

FreelanceReinh — Mon, 20 May 2019 20:03:33 GMT

Hi @oves,

If need be, you could define your own power function and use this in place of the exponential operator:

proc fcmp outlib=work.funcs.test;
function pow(x, y);
  z=if x=y=0 then 1 else x**y;
  return(z);
endsub;
run;

options cmplib=work.funcs;

data test;
input a b;
c=pow(a,b);
cards;
2 3
0 0
;

@PaigeMiller: Hilarious! 🙂 This beats "y=(.1+.2-.3)**0;" as a fun answer to @oves's question.