(reproducible example added)
I cannot grasp enough why the following is FALSE (I aware they are double and integer resp.):
identical(1, as.integer(1)) # FALSE
?identical reveals:
num.eq: logical indicating if (double and complex non-NA) numbers should be compared using == (‘equal’), or by bitwise comparison. The latter (non-default) differentiates between -0 and +0.
sprintf("%.8190f", as.integer(1)) and sprintf("%.8190f", 1) return exactly equal bit pattern. So, I think that at least one of the following must return TRUE. But, I get FALSE in each of the following:
identical(1, as.integer(1), num.eq=TRUE) # FALSE
identical(1, as.integer(1), num.eq=FALSE) # FALSE
I consider like that now: If sprintf is a notation indicator, not the storage indicator, then this means identical() compares based on storage. i.e.
identical(bitpattern1, bitpattern1bitpattern2) returns FALSE. I could not find any other logical explanation to above FALSE/FALSE situation.
I do know that in both 32bit/64bit architecture of R, integers are stored as 32bit.
They are not identical precisely because they have different types. If you look at the documentation for identical you'll find the example identical(1, as.integer(1)) with the comment ## FALSE, stored as different types. That's one clue. The R language definition reminds us that:
Single numbers, such as 4.2, and strings, such as "four point two" are still vectors, of length 1; there are no more basic types (emphasis mine).
So, basically everything is a vector with a type (that's also why [1] shows up every time R returns something). You can check this by explicitly creating a vector with length 1 by using vector, and then comparing it to 0:
x <- vector("double", 1)
identical(x, 0)
# [1] TRUE
That is to say, both vector("double", 1) and 0 output vectors of type "double" and length == 1.
typeof and storage.mode point to the same thing, so you're kind of right when you say "this means identical() compares based on storage". I don't think this necessarily means that "bit patterns" are being compared, although I suppose it's possible. See what happens when you change the storage mode using storage.mode:
## Assign integer to x. This is really a vector length == 1.
x <- 1L
typeof(x)
# [1] "integer"
identical(x, 1L)
# [1] TRUE
## Now change the storage mode and compare again.
storage.mode(x) <- "double"
typeof(x)
# [1] "double"
identical(x, 1L) # This is no longer TRUE.
# [1] FALSE
identical(x, 1.0) # But this is.
# [1] TRUE
One last note: The documentation for identical states that num.eq is a…
logical indicating if (double and complex non-NA) numbers should be compared using == (‘equal’), or by bitwise comparison.
So, changing num.eq doesn't affect any comparison involving integers. Try the following:
# Comparing integers with integers.
identical(+0L, -0L, num.eq = T) # TRUE
identical(+0L, -0L, num.eq = F) # TRUE
# Comparing integers with doubles.
identical(+0, -0L, num.eq = T) # FALSE
identical(+0, -0L, num.eq = F) # FALSE
# Comparing doubles with doubles.
identical(+0.0, -0.0, num.eq = T) # TRUE
identical(+0.0, -0.0, num.eq = F) # FALSE