diff --git a/test/dsets.c b/test/dsets.c
index 81fcf1125f..196fefed87 100644
--- a/test/dsets.c
+++ b/test/dsets.c
@@ -5160,7 +5160,7 @@ test_set_local(hid_t fapl)
     h5_fixname(FILENAME[5], fapl, filename, sizeof filename);
 
     /* Initialize the integer & floating-point dataset */
-    n=0.0;
+    n=1.0;
     for (i = 0; i < DSET_DIM1; i++)
 	for (j = 0; j < DSET_DIM2; j++) {
 	    points[i][j] = (int)n++;
@@ -5356,7 +5356,9 @@ test_set_local(hid_t fapl)
     /* Check that the values read are the modified version of what was written */
     for (i=0; i<dims[0]; i++) {
 	for (j=0; j<dims[1]; j++) {
-	    if (points_dbl[i][j] != check_dbl[i][j]) {
+	    /* If the difference between two values is greater than 0.001%, they're 
+             * considered not equal. */
+            if(!DBL_REL_EQUAL(points_dbl[i][j],check_dbl[i][j],0.00001)) {
 		H5_FAILED();
 		printf("    Line %d: Read different values than written.\n",__LINE__);
 		printf("    At index %lu,%lu\n", (unsigned long)(i), (unsigned long)(j));
diff --git a/test/h5test.c b/test/h5test.c
index 005b215c5a..965c065eb0 100644
--- a/test/h5test.c
+++ b/test/h5test.c
@@ -693,6 +693,7 @@ h5_show_hostname(void)
     WSACleanup();
 #endif
 }
+
 
 #ifdef H5_HAVE_PARALLEL
 /*
diff --git a/test/h5test.h b/test/h5test.h
index 6c6993b28e..41d476c3e3 100644
--- a/test/h5test.h
+++ b/test/h5test.h
@@ -123,15 +123,18 @@ extern MPI_Info h5_io_info_g;         /* MPI INFO object for IO */
  *    1. XXX_ABS_EQUAL - check if the difference is smaller than the 
  *       Epsilon value.  The Epsilon values, FLT_EPSILON, DBL_EPSILON,
  *       and LDBL_EPSILON, are defined by compiler in float.h.
- *    2. To be defined later.
+ *    2. XXX_REL_EQUAL - check if the relative difference is smaller than a
+ *       predefined value M.  See if two values are relatively equal.
+ *       It's the test's responsibility not to pass in the value 0, which 
+ *       may cause the equation to fail.
  */
 #define FLT_ABS_EQUAL(X,Y)	(fabsf(X-Y)<FLT_EPSILON)
 #define DBL_ABS_EQUAL(X,Y)	(fabs(X-Y)<DBL_EPSILON)
 #define LDBL_ABS_EQUAL(X,Y)	(fabsl(X-Y)<LDBL_EPSILON)
 
-/*#define FP_ABS_UNEQUAL(X,Y,T)	((T==1 && fabsf(X-Y)>FLT_EPSILON) || \
-                                 (T==2 && fabs(X-Y)>DBL_EPSILON) || \
-                                 (T==3 && fabsl(X-Y)>LDBL_EPSILON))*/
+#define FLT_REL_EQUAL(X,Y,M)    (fabsf((Y-X)/X<M)
+#define DBL_REL_EQUAL(X,Y,M)    (fabs((Y-X)/X)<M)
+#define LDBL_REL_EQUAL(X,Y,M)    (fabsl((Y-X)/X)<M)
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 extern "C" {
@@ -174,7 +177,6 @@ H5TEST_DLL const void *GetTestParameters(void);
 H5TEST_DLL int  TestErrPrintf(const char *format, ...);
 H5TEST_DLL void SetTest(const char *testname, int action);
 
-
 #ifdef H5_HAVE_FILTER_SZIP
 H5TEST_DLL int h5_szip_can_encode(void);
 #endif /* H5_HAVE_FILTER_SZIP */