xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libm/man/hypot.3 (revision 23c8222edbfb0f0932d88a8351d3a0cf817dfb9e)
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28.\"     from: @(#)hypot.3	6.7 (Berkeley) 5/6/91
29.\"	$NetBSD: hypot.3,v 1.16 2003/11/02 11:17:16 wiz Exp $
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31.Dd May 6, 1991
32.Dt HYPOT 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm hypot ,
36.Nm hypotf ,
37.Nm cabs ,
38.Nm cabsf
39.Nd Euclidean distance and complex absolute value functions
40.Sh LIBRARY
41.Lb libm
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In math.h
44.Ft double
45.Fn hypot "double x" "double y"
46.Ft float
47.Fn hypotf "float x" "float y"
48.Ft double
49.Fn cabs "struct complex { double x; double y; } z"
50.Ft float
51.Fn cabsf "struct complex { float x; float y; } z"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Fn hypot
55and
56.Fn cabs
57functions
58compute the
59sqrt(x*x+y*y)
60in such a way that underflow will not happen, and overflow
61occurs only if the final result deserves it.
62.Pp
63.Fn hypot "\*(If" "v"
64=
65.Fn hypot "v" "\*(If"
66= +\*(If for all
67.Ar v ,
68including \*(Na.
69.Sh ERRORS
70Below 0.97
71.Em ulps .
72Consequently
73.Fn hypot "5.0" "12.0"
74= 13.0
75exactly;
76in general, hypot and cabs return an integer whenever an
77integer might be expected.
78.Pp
79The same cannot be said for the shorter and faster version of hypot
80and cabs that is provided in the comments in cabs.c; its error can
81exceed 1.2
82.Em ulps .
83.Sh NOTES
84As might be expected,
85.Fn hypot "v" "\*(Na"
86and
87.Fn hypot "\*(Na" "v"
88are \*(Na for all
89.Em finite
90.Ar v ;
91with "reserved operand" in place of "\*(Na", the
92same is true on a
93.Tn VAX .
94But programmers on machines other than a
95.Tn VAX
96(it has no \*(If)
97might be surprised at first to discover that
98.Fn hypot "\(+-\*(If" "\*(Na"
99= +\*(If.
100This is intentional; it happens because
101.Fn hypot "\*(If" "v"
102= +\*(If
103for
104.Em all
105.Ar v ,
106finite or infinite.
107Hence
108.Fn hypot "\*(If" "v"
109is independent of
110.Ar v .
111Unlike the reserved operand fault on a
112.Tn VAX ,
113the
114.Tn IEEE
115\*(Na is designed to
116disappear when it turns out to be irrelevant, as it does in
117.Fn hypot "\*(If" "\*(Na" .
118.Sh SEE ALSO
119.Xr math 3 ,
120.Xr sqrt 3
121.Sh HISTORY
122Both a
123.Fn hypot
124function and a
125.Fn cabs
126function
127appeared in
128.At v7 .
129.Sh BUGS
130The
131.Fn cabs
132and
133.Fn cabsf
134functions use structures that are not defined in any header and need to
135be defined by the user.
136As such they cannot be prototyped properly.
137