Is there some difference between NumPy np.inf and float('Inf')?
float('Inf') == np.inf returns True, so it seems they are interchangeable, thus I was wondering why NumPy has defined its own "inf" constant, and when should I use one constant instead of the other (considering style concerns too)?
1 Answer
TL, DR: There is no difference and they can be used interchangeably.
Besides having the same value as math.inf and float('inf'):
>>> import math
>>> import numpy as np
>>> np.inf == float('inf')
True
>>> np.inf == math.inf
True
It also has the same type:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> type(np.inf)
float
>>> type(np.inf) is type(float('inf'))
float
That's interesting because NumPy also has it's own floating point types:
>>> np.float32(np.inf)
inf
>>> type(np.float32(np.inf))
numpy.float32
>>> np.float32('inf') == np.inf # nevertheless equal
True
So it has the same value and the same type as math.inf and float('inf') which means it's interchangeable.
