Summation problem revisited - more robost computation

Abstract

Numerical data processing is a key task across different fields of computer technology use. However even simple summation of values is not precise due to the floating point representation use. This paper presents a practical algorithm for summation of values convenient for medium and large data sets. The proposed algorithm is simple, easy to implement. Its computational complexity is O(N) in the contrary of the Exact Sign Summation Algorithm (ESSA) approach with O(N2) run-time complexity. The proposed algorithm is especially convenient for cases when exponent data differ significantly and many small values are summed with higher values.