The GAWK distro contains an example program called arraymax.awk - that
calculates the maximum of a series of input values. However, it uses the
naive way of calculating the max - which fails if all the values are
negative (Tested and verified by taking the sample data file and prefixing
all the numbers with "-"; the program then generates no output).

Perhaps something to fix. Note the correct algorithm in my other post,
where you initialize the max value to the first input arg.

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On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 9:47:23 AM UTC-5, Kenny McCormack wrote:
> The GAWK distro contains an example program called arraymax.awk - that
> calculates the maximum of a series of input values.

Actually, it's just an inaptly-named sample program to demonstrate some array features,
not a general-purpose max calculator. From the docs:

https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/html_node/Array-Example.html

The following program takes a list of lines, each beginning with a line
number, and prints them out in order of line number. The line numbers
are not in order when they are first read---instead, they
are scrambled. This program sorts the lines by making an array using
the line numbers as subscripts. The program then prints out the lines
in sorted order of their numbers. It is a very simple program and gets
confused upon encountering repeated numbers, gaps, or lines that don't
begin with a number:
....

So I don't see why it's a bug. It does what it says it does, but I agree that it certainly
does not calculate maximum values in the general case.

Regards,
Andy

In article <257744db-2aa0-4e4a-8434-7adadb81fdf1n@googlegroups.com>,
Andrew Schorr <aschorr@telemetry-investments.com> wrote:
>On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 9:47:23 AM UTC-5, Kenny McCormack wrote:
>> The GAWK distro contains an example program called arraymax.awk - that
>> calculates the maximum of a series of input values.
>
>Actually, it's just an inaptly-named sample program to demonstrate some array features,
>not a general-purpose max calculator. From the docs:

Agreed - and it is really no big deal. I wasn't even calling it a bug -
just a thing that could be fixed. I'm sure that, in the fullness of time,
someone (on the dev side) will notice it and decide to fix it.

You're right about the name being misleading. But I also want to point out
that when I said that it "calculates the maximum of a series of input values",
that doee not necessarily mean that that is its primary purpose. In this
case, that calculation is merely a step on the way to the actual purpose of
the program (if you see what I mean...)

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On 2022-01-20, Andrew Schorr <aschorr@telemetry-investments.com> wrote:
> So I don't see why it's a bug. It does what it says it does, but I agree that it certainly
> does not calculate maximum values in the general case.

I.e. what is written on the box is a bug. The box says there are
Cheerios inside, and by golly, there actually are. But the box should
say Corn Flakes, damn it!

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