ERF(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ERF(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
erf, erff, erfl -- error functions
SYNOPSIS
#include <math.h>
double erf(double x);
float erff(float x);
long double erfl(long double x);
DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here
and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1-2008 defers to the ISO C standard.
These functions shall compute the error function of their argument x, defined as:
_Ie^ -t^2 dt
An application wishing to check for error situations should set errno to zero and call feclearexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT) before calling these
functions. On return, if errno is non-zero or fetestexcept(FE_INVALID | FE_DIVBYZERO | FE_OVERFLOW | FE_UNDERFLOW) is non-zero, an error
has occurred.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the value of the error function.
If x is NaN, a NaN shall be returned.
If x is +-0, +-0 shall be returned.
If x is +-Inf, +-1 shall be returned.
If the correct value would cause underflow, a range error may occur, and erf(), erff(), and erfl() shall return an implementation-defined
value no greater in magnitude than DBL_MIN, FLT_MIN, and LDBL_MIN, respectively.
If the IEC 60559 Floating-Point option is supported, 2 * x/sqrt(n) should be returned.
ERRORS
These functions may fail if:
Range Error The result underflows.
If the integer expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERRNO) is non-zero, then errno shall be set to [ERANGE]. If the integer
expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERREXCEPT) is non-zero, then the underflow floating-point exception shall be raised.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Computing the Probability for a Normal Variate
This example shows how to use erf() to compute the probability that a normal variate assumes a value in the range [x1,x2] with x1<=x2.
This example uses the constant M_SQRT1_2 which is part of the XSI option.
#include <math.h>
double
Phi(const double x1, const double x2)
{
return ( erf(x2*M_SQRT1_2) - erf(x1*M_SQRT1_2) ) / 2;
}
APPLICATION USAGE
Underflow occurs when |x| < DBL_MIN * (sqrt(n)/2).
On error, the expressions (math_errhandling & MATH_ERRNO) and (math_errhandling & MATH_ERREXCEPT) are independent of each other, but at
least one of them must be non-zero.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
erfc(), feclearexcept(), fetestexcept(), isnan()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, Section 4.19, Treatment of Error Conditions for Mathematical Functions, <math.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Stan-
dard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE
/The Open Group 2013 ERF(3P)