ENH: Allow relative and/or absolute precision in assert_almost_equal

This commit makes `assert_almost_equal` accept both relative and
absolute precision when comparing numbers, through two new keyword
arguments: `rtol`, and `atol`, respectively.

Under the hood, `_libs.testing.assert_almost_equal` is now calling
`math.isclose`, instead of an adaptaion of
[numpy.testing.assert_almost_equal](https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy-1.17.0/reference/generated/numpy.testing.assert_almost_equal.html).

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst

@@ -210,6 +210,10 @@ Deprecations
 - Setting values with ``.loc`` using a positional slice is deprecated and will raise in a future version.  Use ``.loc`` with labels or ``.iloc`` with positions instead (:issue:`31840`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.to_dict` has deprecated accepting short names for ``orient`` in future versions (:issue:`32515`)
 - :meth:`Categorical.to_dense` is deprecated and will be removed in a future version, use ``np.asarray(cat)`` instead (:issue:`32639`)
+- :meth:`util.testing.assert_almost_equal` now accepts both relative and absolute
+  precision through the ``rtol``, and ``atol`` parameters, thus deprecating the
+  ``check_less_precise`` parameter. (:issue:`13357`).
+-
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

pandas/_libs/testing.pyx

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import math
+
 import numpy as np
 
 from pandas.core.dtypes.missing import isna, array_equivalent
@@ -38,13 +40,6 @@ cdef bint is_dictlike(obj):
     return hasattr(obj, 'keys') and hasattr(obj, '__getitem__')
 
 
-cdef bint decimal_almost_equal(double desired, double actual, int decimal):
-    # Code from
-    # http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated
-    # /numpy.testing.assert_almost_equal.html
-    return abs(desired - actual) < (0.5 * 10.0 ** -decimal)
-
-
 cpdef assert_dict_equal(a, b, bint compare_keys=True):
     assert is_dictlike(a) and is_dictlike(b), (
         "Cannot compare dict objects, one or both is not dict-like"
@@ -63,7 +58,7 @@ cpdef assert_dict_equal(a, b, bint compare_keys=True):
 
 
 cpdef assert_almost_equal(a, b,
-                          check_less_precise=False,
+                          rtol=1.e-5, atol=1.e-8,
                           bint check_dtype=True,
                           obj=None, lobj=None, robj=None, index_values=None):
     """
@@ -73,31 +68,33 @@ cpdef assert_almost_equal(a, b,
     ----------
     a : object
     b : object
-    check_less_precise : bool or int, default False
-        Specify comparison precision.
-        5 digits (False) or 3 digits (True) after decimal points are
-        compared. If an integer, then this will be the number of decimal
-        points to compare
+    rtol : float, default 1e-5
+        Relative tolerance.
+
+        .. versionadded:: 1.1.0
+    atol : float, default 1e-8
+        Absolute tolerance.
+
+        .. versionadded:: 1.1.0
     check_dtype: bool, default True
-        check dtype if both a and b are np.ndarray
+        check dtype if both a and b are np.ndarray.
     obj : str, default None
         Specify object name being compared, internally used to show
-        appropriate assertion message
+        appropriate assertion message.
     lobj : str, default None
         Specify left object name being compared, internally used to show
-        appropriate assertion message
+        appropriate assertion message.
     robj : str, default None
         Specify right object name being compared, internally used to show
-        appropriate assertion message
+        appropriate assertion message.
     index_values : ndarray, default None
         Specify shared index values of objects being compared, internally used
-        to show appropriate assertion message
+        to show appropriate assertion message.
 
         .. versionadded:: 1.1.0
 
     """
     cdef:
-        int decimal
         double diff = 0.0
         Py_ssize_t i, na, nb
         double fa, fb
@@ -108,8 +105,6 @@ cpdef assert_almost_equal(a, b,
     if robj is None:
         robj = b
 
-    assert isinstance(check_less_precise, (int, bool))
-
     if isinstance(a, dict) or isinstance(b, dict):
         return assert_dict_equal(a, b)
 
@@ -167,8 +162,7 @@ cpdef assert_almost_equal(a, b,
 
         for i in range(len(a)):
             try:
-                assert_almost_equal(a[i], b[i],
-                                    check_less_precise=check_less_precise)
+                assert_almost_equal(a[i], b[i], rtol=rtol, atol=atol)
             except AssertionError:
                 is_unequal = True
                 diff += 1
@@ -200,24 +194,11 @@ cpdef assert_almost_equal(a, b,
             # inf comparison
             return True
 
-        if check_less_precise is True:
-            decimal = 3
-        elif check_less_precise is False:
-            decimal = 5
-        else:
-            decimal = check_less_precise
-
         fa, fb = a, b
 
-        # case for zero
-        if abs(fa) < 1e-5:
-            if not decimal_almost_equal(fa, fb, decimal):
-                assert False, (f'(very low values) expected {fb:.5f} '
-                               f'but got {fa:.5f}, with decimal {decimal}')
-        else:
-            if not decimal_almost_equal(1, fb / fa, decimal):
-                assert False, (f'expected {fb:.5f} but got {fa:.5f}, '
-                               f'with decimal {decimal}')
+        if not math.isclose(fa, fb, rel_tol=rtol, abs_tol=atol):
+            assert False, (f"expected {fb:.5f} but got {fa:.5f}, "
+                           f"with rtol={rtol}, atol={atol}")
         return True
 
     raise AssertionError(f"{a} != {b}")