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Re: Sort with -Infinity fails

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg73862] Re: [mg73822] Sort with -Infinity fails
  • From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl>
  • Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 06:32:04 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <200703011117.GAA28248@smc.vnet.net>

On 1 Mar 2007, at 12:17, Tom Aldenberg wrote:

> Dear MathGroup,
>
> Minus Infinity (-Infinity) is smaller than -8, but Sort does not 
> sort it as
> expected.
> Is there a Real minus Infinity?
>
>
> In[75]:=
>       -Infinity < -8
> Out[75]=
>       True
>
> In[76]:=
>       Sort[{-Infinity, -8, 5}]
> Out[76]=
>       {-8, 5, -=B0}
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom Aldenberg
>
> ______________________________________________________________________=

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>
>

Sort does not fail, but simply sorts things using Mathematica's 
canonical order in which numbers come before symbols.
You need to change the default sorting function to Less (or Greater):


Sort[{-Infinity, -8, 5}, Less]

{-Infinity, -8, 5}


Sort[{-Infinity, -8, 5}, Greater]


{5, -8, -Infinity}

Andrzej Kozlowski





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