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abs> <Math
Last updated: Fri, 18 Jul 2008

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Math Functions

Table of Contents

  • abs — Absolute value
  • acos — Arc cosine
  • acosh — Inverse hyperbolic cosine
  • asin — Arc sine
  • asinh — Inverse hyperbolic sine
  • atan2 — Arc tangent of two variables
  • atan — Arc tangent
  • atanh — Inverse hyperbolic tangent
  • base_convert — Convert a number between arbitrary bases
  • bindec — Binary to decimal
  • ceil — Round fractions up
  • cos — Cosine
  • cosh — Hyperbolic cosine
  • decbin — Decimal to binary
  • dechex — Decimal to hexadecimal
  • decoct — Decimal to octal
  • deg2rad — Converts the number in degrees to the radian equivalent
  • exp — Calculates the exponent of e
  • expm1 — Returns exp(number) - 1, computed in a way that is accurate even when the value of number is close to zero
  • floor — Round fractions down
  • fmod — Returns the floating point remainder (modulo) of the division of the arguments
  • getrandmax — Show largest possible random value
  • hexdec — Hexadecimal to decimal
  • hypot — Calculate the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle
  • is_finite — Finds whether a value is a legal finite number
  • is_infinite — Finds whether a value is infinite
  • is_nan — Finds whether a value is not a number
  • lcg_value — Combined linear congruential generator
  • log10 — Base-10 logarithm
  • log1p — Returns log(1 + number), computed in a way that is accurate even when the value of number is close to zero
  • log — Natural logarithm
  • max — Find highest value
  • min — Find lowest value
  • mt_getrandmax — Show largest possible random value
  • mt_rand — Generate a better random value
  • mt_srand — Seed the better random number generator
  • octdec — Octal to decimal
  • pi — Get value of pi
  • pow — Exponential expression
  • rad2deg — Converts the radian number to the equivalent number in degrees
  • rand — Generate a random integer
  • round — Rounds a float
  • sin — Sine
  • sinh — Hyperbolic sine
  • sqrt — Square root
  • srand — Seed the random number generator
  • tan — Tangent
  • tanh — Hyperbolic tangent


abs> <Math
Last updated: Fri, 18 Jul 2008
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
Math Functions
PiledHigher at jovi dot net
31-Mar-2008 06:47
// Ordinal one liner tests good up to PHP_INT_MAX-7 on GNU/Linux
function ordinal($n) {                                                                                                                                                  
    return $n . gmdate("S", (((abs($n) + 9) % 10) + ((abs($n / 10) % 10) == 1) * 10) * 86400);                                                                          
}
lummox
02-Feb-2008 04:24
Wouldn't the following function do the same but a lot easier than the one in the comment before?

function trimInteger($targetNumber,$newLength) {
    return $targetNumber%pow(10,$newLength);
}
Mike
10-Jan-2008 04:23
//had a mistake in last post, heres the corrected version

/*
Just a simple function to trim digits from the left side of an integer. TRIM DOWN TO 4-> (ie. 987654 => 7654)
*/

function trimInteger($targetNumber,$newLength) {

    $digits = pow(10,$newLength);

    $s = ($targetNumber/ $digits); //make the last X digits the                  decimal part

    $t = floor($targetNumber / $digits); //drop the last X digits (the decimal part)

    $h = $s - $t; //remove all  but the decimal part

    $newInteger = ($h*$digits); //make the everything after the decimal point the new number

    return $newInteger;
}
ddarjany at yahoo dot com
05-Sep-2007 07:25
Tim's fix of Evan's ordinal function causes another problem, it no longer works for number above 100.  (E.g. it returns 111st instead of 111th). 
Here is a further modified version which should work for all numbers.

<?PHP

function ordinal($cardinal)    {
 
$cardinal = (int)$cardinal;
 
$digit = substr($cardinal, -1, 1);

  if (
$cardinal <100) $tens = round($cardinal/10);
  else
$tens = substr($cardinal, -2, 1);

  if(
$tens == 1)  {
    return
$cardinal.'th';
  }

  switch(
$digit) {
    case
1:
      return
$cardinal.'st';
    case
2:
      return
$cardinal.'nd';
    case
3:
      return
$cardinal.'rd';
    default:
      return
$cardinal.'th';
  }
}
 
?>
11-Apr-2007 08:55
Here is another way of calculating the nth term of the Fibonacci sequence, based on Binet's formula (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_series#Closed_form_expression for more information on this).
In this example, it would display the 17th term of the Fibonacci sequence.

<?php

$n
= 17; // Sets a value for $n, the nth term
$phi = (1 + sqrt(5)) / 2; // Sets the value of phi for use in the formula
$u = (pow($phi, $n) - pow(1 - $phi, $n)) / sqrt(5);
echo
"U<sub>$n</sub> = $u";

?>

Here is a script that lists the Fibonacci sequence from whatever two terms you specify, in this example from the 12th term to the 27th term (inclusive).

<?php

$f
= 12; // Sets the 'f'th term, the term from which to start listing
$t = 27; //Sets the 't'th term, the term at which to stop listing
$phi = (1 + sqrt(5)) / 2; // Sets the value of phi for use in the formula
while($f <= $t) {
 
$u = (pow($phi, $f) - pow(1 - $phi, $f)) / sqrt(5);
  echo
"U<sub>$f</sub> = $u<br>\n";
 
$f++;
}

?>
barry at megaspace dot com
02-Dec-2006 06:14
Here's a least common denominator (lcd) function:

$array = array(3,4,6,8,18,2);
   
    function lcd($array,$x) {
               
        $mod_sum = 0;
       
        for($int=1;$int < count($array);$int++) {               
            $modulus[$int] = ($array[0]*$x) % ($array[$int]);
            $mod_sum = $mod_sum + $modulus[$int];           
        }
            
        if (!$mod_sum) {
            echo "LCD: ".($array[0]*$x)."\n";
        }
           
        else {
            lcd($array,$x+1);
        }
       
    }

lcd($array,1);
tembenite at gmail dot com
06-Nov-2006 10:36
To add to what Cornelius had, I have written a function that will take an array of numbers and return the least common multiple of them:

function lcm_arr($items){
    //Input: An Array of numbers
    //Output: The LCM of the numbers
    while(2 <= count($items)){
        array_push($items, lcm(array_shift($items), array_shift($items)));
    }
    return reset($items);
}

//His Code below with $'s added for vars

function gcd($n, $m) {
   $n=abs($n); $m=abs($m);
   if ($n==0 and $m==0)
       return 1; //avoid infinite recursion
   if ($n==$m and $n>=1)
       return $n;
   return $m<$n?gcd($n-$m,$n):gcd($n,$m-$n);
}

function lcm($n, $m) {
   return $m * ($n/gcd($n,$m));
}
tim at durge dot org
27-Oct-2006 02:51
In Evan's ordinal function, the line:

<?php
  $tens
= substr($cardinal, -2, 1);
?>

needs to be replaced by:

<?php
  $tens
= round($cardinal/10);
?>

or similar. At least on PHP 4.3.10,  substr("1", -2, 1)  returns '1' - so Evan's function gives "1th", as well as "11th".  This is contrary to the documentation, but is noted in the comments on the substr manual page.
Evan Broder
26-Jul-2006 08:42
A slightly more complex but much more accurate cardinal=>ordinal function (the one below doesn't account for 11th, 12th, and 13th, which don't follow the usual rules):

<?php

   
function ordinal($cardinal)
    {
       
$cardinal = (int)$cardinal;
       
$digit = substr($cardinal, -1, 1);
       
$tens = substr($cardinal, -2, 1);
        if(
$tens == 1)
        {
            return
$cardinal.'th';
        }
       
        switch(
$digit)
        {
        case
1:
            return
$cardinal.'st';
        case
2:
            return
$cardinal.'nd';
        case
3:
            return
$cardinal.'rd';
        default:
            return
$cardinal.'th';
        }
    }

?>
edward at edwardsun dot com
20-Jul-2006 03:24
well just a note.. maybe i'm a bit stupid.. but remember to use pow() rather than the "^" sign for exponents.. as it took me 5 minutes to figure out why it wasn't working.
jaakko dot mantila at sagas dot fi
12-Jul-2006 12:10
Here is another payment function with working future value($fv) option:

function payment($r,$np,$pv,$fv,$prec) {
   /* Calculates the monthly payment
   ** $apr = the annual percentage rate of the loan.
   ** $n  = number of monthly payments (360 for a 30year loan)
   ** $pv    = present value or principal of the loan
   ** $fv  = future value of the loan (after payments)
   ** $prec = the precision you wish rounded to
   */
   /****************************************\
   ** No Warranty is expressed or implied. **
   *****************************************/
if(!$fv) $fv = 0;
$mypmt=$r * (-$fv+pow((1+$r),$np)*$pv)/(-1+pow((1+$r),$np));
return round($mypmt, $prec);
}
twoscoopsofpig at NOSPAM dot gmail dot com
07-Jul-2006 06:07
@ Moikboy:

This may or may not be more simplified factorialization:

<?php
$f
=$fact=25;
while (
$fact>0)
{
$f=$f*$fact--;}
echo
$f;
?>
marasek.SPAMLESS at telton.de
08-Jun-2006 02:23
I could not resist to do a simpler version of the ordinal function:
<?php
function ordinal($num)
{
   
$num = (int)$num;
   
$digit = substr($num, -1, 1);
   
$ord = "th";
    switch(
$digit)
    {
        case
1: $ord = "st"; break;
        case
2: $ord = "nd"; break;
        case
3: $ord = "rd"; break;
    break;
    }
return
$num.$ord;
}
?>
One could replace the typecast with

<?php
if($num===NULL or $num==="")
{return
NULL;}
?>

to get an empty result instead of "0th" in case $num is empty too.
moikboy (nospam!) moikboy (nospam!) hu
10-May-2006 10:15
I think, this is the optimal code for calculating factorials:

<?php
function fact($int){
    if(
$int<2)return 1;
    for(
$f=2;$int-1>1;$f*=$int--);
    return
$f;
};
?>

And another one for calculating the $int-th Fibonacci-number:

<?php
function fib($int){
    static
$fibTable=array();
    return empty(
$fibTable[$int])?$fibTable[$int] = $int>1?fib($int-2)+fib($int-1):1:$fibTable[$int];
};
?>
nessthehero at comcast dot net
21-Mar-2006 11:48
Just a simple function to find the ordinal ending to any number if you're printing for example: "The nth result is..."

function ordinal($num) {
    $digit = substr($num,-1,1);
    $ord = array(
        0 => 'th',
        1 => 'st',
        2 => 'nd',
        3 => 'rd',
        4 => 'th',
        5 => 'th',
        6 => 'th',
        7 => 'th',
        8 => 'th',
        9 => 'th'
    );       
    $string = $num.$ord[$digit];
    return $string;
}
Florian
03-Mar-2006 10:36
A function that simulates the sum operator. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sum). Be careful with the expression because it may cause a security hole; note the single quotes to don't parse the "$".
<?php
# @param    string    $expr    expression to evaluate (for example (2*$x)^2+1)
# @param    string    $var      dummy variable (for example "x")
# @param    integer    $start
# @param    integer    $end
# @param    integer    $step

function sum($expr,$var,$start,$end,$step = 1) {
   
$expr = str_replace(';','',$expr);
   
$var = str_replace('$','',$var);
   
$start = (int)$start;    $end = (int)$end;    $step = (int)$step;    $sum = 0;
   
    for (
$i = $start; $i <= $end; $i = $i + $step) {
       
$_expr = str_replace('$'.$var,$i,$expr);   
       
$_eval = '$_result = '.$_expr.'; return $_result;';
       
$_result = eval($_eval);
        if(
$result === FALSE) return "SYNTAX ERROR : $expr";
       
$sum += $_result;
    }
    return (int)
$sum;
}
?>
jos at gtacrime dot nl
17-Feb-2006 10:39
Thanks to Chronial "at" cyberpunkuniverse.de, I was able to create the binompdf(n, p, k) function.

<?php
function nCr($n, $k){
   if (
$k > $n)
     return
NaN;
   if ((
$n - $k) < $k)
     return
nCr($n, ($n - $k));
  
$return = 1;
   for (
$i=0; $i<$k; $i++){
    
$return *= ($n - $i) / ($i + 1);
   }
   return
$return;
}

function
binompdf($n, $p, $k){
   
$return = nCr($n, $k) * pow($p, $k) * pow((1 - $p), ($n - $k));
    return
$return;
}
?>
peter-stangl at t-online dot de
02-Feb-2006 12:16
I needed to approximate an integral because i was not able to calculate it, so i wrote this function. It approximates an integral with the composite Simpson's rule.
More information on Simpson's rule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_rule

<?php

function simpsonf($x){
// returns f(x) for integral approximation with composite Simpson's rule
  
return(pow((1+pow($x, (-4))), 0.5));
}
function
simpsonsrule($a, $b, $n){
// approximates integral_a_b f(x) dx with composite Simpson's rule with $n intervals
// $n has to be an even number
// f(x) is defined in "function simpsonf($x)"
  
if($n%2==0){
     
$h=($b-$a)/$n;
     
$S=simpsonf($a)+simpsonf($b);
     
$i=1;
      while(
$i <= ($n-1)){
        
$xi=$a+$h*$i;
         if(
$i%2==0){
           
$S=$S+2*simpsonf($xi);
         }
         else{
           
$S=$S+4*simpsonf($xi);
         }
        
$i++;
      }
      return(
$h/3*$S);
      }
   else{
      return(
'$n has to be an even number');
   }
}

?>
daniel at g-loc dot org
01-Dec-2005 07:01
If you're an aviator and needs to calculate windcorrection angles and groundspeed (e.g. during flightplanning) this can be very useful.

$windcorrection = rad2deg(asin((($windspeed * (sin(deg2rad($tt - ($winddirection-180))))/$tas))));
$groundspeed = $tas*cos(deg2rad($windcorrection)) + $windspeed*cos(deg2rad($tt-($winddirection-180)));

You can probably write these lines more beautiful, but they work!
nbraczek at bsds dot de
26-Oct-2005 11:27
Under some circumstances, it is appropriate to round floats to a given number of significant digits. This function will do it for you:

/**
 * Round to significant digits
 *
 * @param float   $f The number to be rounded
 * @param integer $n Number of significant digits
 */
function round_significant($f, $n)
{
    if ($f==0) return $f;
    return round($f, $n-floor(log10(abs($f)))-1);
}
monte at ohrt dot com
18-Oct-2005 03:37
This is an efficient method of calculating the binomial coefficient C(n,k). This code was derived from Owant: Mastering Algorithms with Perl.

<?php
  
// calculate binomial coefficient
  
function binomial_coeff($n, $k) {

     
$j = $res = 1;

      if(
$k < 0 || $k > $n)
         return
0;
      if((
$n - $k) < $k)
        
$k = $n - $k;

      while(
$j <= $k) {
        
$res *= $n--;
        
$res /= $j++;
      }

      return
$res;

   }
?>

If you compiled php with --enable-bcmath, you can get full integer values of extremely large numbers by replacing:

$res *= $n--;
$res /= $j++;

with:

$res = bcmul($res, $n--);
$res = bcdiv($res, $j++);
crescentfreshpot at yahoo dot com
27-Jul-2005 04:50
Median:

number median ( number arg1, number arg2 [, number ...] )

number median ( array numbers )

<?php

function median()
{
   
$args = func_get_args();

    switch(
func_num_args())
    {
        case
0:
           
trigger_error('median() requires at least one parameter',E_USER_WARNING);
            return
false;
            break;

        case
1:
           
$args = array_pop($args);
           
// fallthrough

       
default:
            if(!
is_array($args)) {
               
trigger_error('median() requires a list of numbers to operate on or an array of numbers',E_USER_NOTICE);
                return
false;
            }

           
sort($args);
           
           
$n = count($args);
           
$h = intval($n / 2);

            if(
$n % 2 == 0) {
               
$median = ($args[$h] + $args[$h-1]) / 2;
            } else {
               
$median = $args[$h];
            }

            break;
    }
   
    return
$median;
}

?>
bjcffnet at gmail dot com
27-Jul-2005 01:57
thearbitcouncil at gmail dot com, you could just use array_sum():
<?php
function average($arr)
{
   if (!
is_array($arr)) return false;

   return
array_sum($arr)/count($arr);
}

$array = array(5, 10, 15);
echo
average($array); // 10
?>
graywh at gmail DELETE dot com
01-Jun-2005 09:48
If you're really concerned about speed, you could compute the factorial of large numbers using the Gamma function of n-1.

Integral y^(t-1)*Exp(-y) for y from 0 to Infinity

For Fibonacci numbers, there's a better-than-recursive way.

((1+sqrt(5))/2)^(n/sqrt(5)) - ((1-sqrt(5))/2)^(n/sqrt(5))
eric at woolhiser dot com
11-Mar-2005 05:41
For all you guys writing mortgage calculators out there:

<?php

function payment($apr,$n,$pv,$fv=0.0,$prec=2){
   
/* Calculates the monthly payment rouned to the nearest penny
    ** $apr = the annual percentage rate of the loan.
    ** $n   = number of monthly payments (360 for a 30year loan)
    ** $pv    = present value or principal of the loan
    ** $fv  = future value of the loan
    ** $prec = the precision you wish rounded to
    */
    /****************************************\
    ** No Warranty is expressed or implied. **
    *****************************************/
   
   
if ($apr !=0) {
       
$alpha = 1/(1+$apr/12);
       
$retval round($pv * (1 - $alpha) / $alpha /
        (
1 - pow($alpha,$n)),$prec) ;
    } else {
       
$retval = round($pv / $n, $prec);
    }
    return(
$retval);

}
?>
tmpa at yahoo dot com
19-Feb-2005 09:42
while joogat's one line function is short, it is probably better to calculate factorial iteratively instead of recursively. keep in mind if you want large factorials, you'll need to use some sort of arbitrary precision integer or perhaps the BCMath functions. then again, unless you're trying to do large numbers (170! is the highest that you can do that does not return infinity) you probably won't notice any time difference.
<?php
function factorial($in) {
   
// 0! = 1! = 1
   
$out = 1;

   
// Only if $in is >= 2
   
for ($i = 2; $i <= $in; $i++) {
       
$out *= $i;
    }

    return
$out;
}
?>
thearbitcouncil at gmail dot com
06-Jan-2005 11:32
Two functions I didn't find elsewhere... one to compute mean of an array of numbers, and another to computer variance of a sample of numbers. Both take an array of numbers as arguments. Not much error checking, or optimization...

(note: variance function uses the average function...)

<?php

function average($arr)
{
    if (!
count($arr)) return 0;

   
$sum = 0;
    for (
$i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++)
    {
       
$sum += $arr[$i];
    }

    return
$sum / count($arr);
}

function
variance($arr)
{
    if (!
count($arr)) return 0;

   
$mean = average($arr);

   
$sos = 0;    // Sum of squares
   
for ($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++)
    {
       
$sos += ($arr[$i] - $mean) * ($arr[$i] - $mean);
    }

    return
$sos / (count($arr)-1);  // denominator = n-1; i.e. estimating based on sample
                                    // n-1 is also what MS Excel takes by default in the
                                    // VAR function
}

echo
variance(array(4,6,23,15,18)); // echoes 64.7...correct value :)

?>
info at gavinvincent dot co dot uk
17-Nov-2004 01:34
If you need to deal with polar co-ordinates for somereason you will need to convert to and from x,y for input and output in most situations: here are some functions to convert cartesian to polar and polar to cartesian
<?
//returns array of r, theta in the range of 0-2*pi (in radians)
function rect2polar($x,$y)
{
     if(
is_numeric($x)&&is_numeric($y))
    {
       
$r=sqrt(pow($x,2)+pow($y,2));
        if(
$x==0)
        {
             if(
$y>0) $theta=pi()/2;
            else
$theta=3*pi()/2;
        }
        else if(
$x<0) $theta=atan($y/$x)+pi();
        else if(
$y<0) $theta=atan($y/$x)+2*pi();
        else
$theta=atan($y/$x);
       
$polar=array("r"=>$r,"theta"=>$theta);
        return
$polar;
    }
    else return
false;
}

//r must be in radians, returns array of x,y
function polar2rect($r,$theta)
{
 if(
is_numeric($r)&&is_numeric($theta))
 {
       
$x=$r*cos($theta);
   
$y=$r*sin($theta);
   
$rect=array("x"=>$x,"y"=>$y);
 }
 else
 {
   return
false;
 }
}
?>
help at gjbdesign dot com
25-Sep-2004 06:05
Occasionally a user must enter a number in a form. This function converts fractions to decimals and leaves decimals untouched. Of course, you may wish to round the final output, but that is not included here.

<?php
/*Some example values of $q
$q = "2.5";
$q = "2 1/2";
$q = "5/2";
*/
function Deci_Con($q){
//check for a space, signifying a whole number with a fraction
   
if(strstr($q, ' ')){
       
$wa = strrev($q);
       
$wb = strrev(strstr($wa, ' '));
       
$whole = true;//this is a whole number
   
}
//now check the fraction part
   
if(strstr($q, '/')){
        if(
$whole==true){//if whole number, then remove the whole number and space from the calculations
             
$q = strstr($q, ' ');
        }
$b = str_replace("/","",strstr($q, '/'));//this is the divisor
//isolate the numerator
$c = strrev($q);
$d = strstr($c, '/');
$e = strrev($d);
$a = str_replace("/","",$e);//the pre-final numerator
       
if($whole==true){//add the whole number to the calculations
           
$a = $a+($wb*$b);//new numerator is whole number multiplied by denominator plus original numerator   
       
}
$q = $a/$b;//this is now your decimal
return $q;
    }else{
        return
$q;//not a fraction, just return the decimal
   
}
}
?>
donnieb819 at hotmail dot NOSPAM dot com
16-Sep-2004 02:58
Method to convert an arbitrary decimal number to its most reduced fraction form (so a string is returned, this method would probably be used for output formatting purposes.)  There were other methods similar to this one on the page, but none did quite what I wanted.  It's maybe not the most elegant code, but it gets the job done.  Hope this helps someone.  An iterative form of Euclid's algorithm is used to find the GCD.

<?php
function dec2frac( $decimal )
{
 
$decimal = (string)$decimal;
 
$num = '';
 
$den = 1;
 
$dec = false;
 
 
// find least reduced fractional form of number
 
for( $i = 0, $ix = strlen( $decimal ); $i < $ix; $i++ )
  {
   
// build the denominator as we 'shift' the decimal to the right
   
if( $dec ) $den *= 10;
   
   
// find the decimal place/ build the numberator
   
if( $decimal{$i} == '.' ) $dec = true;
    else
$num .= $decimal{$i};
  }
 
$num = (int)$num;
   
 
// whole number, just return it
 
if( $den == 1 ) return $num;
   
 
$num2 = $num;
 
$den2 = $den;
 
$rem  = 1;
 
// Euclid's Algorithm (to find the gcd)
 
while( $num2 % $den2 ) {
   
$rem = $num2 % $den2;
   
$num2 = $den2;
   
$den2 = $rem;
  }
  if(
$den2 != $den ) $rem = $den2;
   
 
// now $rem holds the gcd of the numerator and denominator of our fraction
 
return ($num / $rem ) . "/" . ($den / $rem);
}
?>

Examples:
echo dec2frac( 10 );
echo dec2frac( .5 );
echo dec2frac( 5.25 );
echo dec2frac( .333333333 );

yields:
10
1/2
21/4
333333333/1000000000
pat.mat AT sympatico DOT com
09-Jun-2004 04:36
For people interest in Differential Equations, I've done a function that receive a string like: x^2+x^3 and put it in
2x+3x^2 witch is the differantial of the previous equation.

In the code there is one thing missing: the $string{$i} is often going outOfBound (Uninitialized string offset: 6 in...)
if your error setting is set a little too high... I just dont know how to fix this.

So there is the code for differential equation with (+ and -) only:

<?
function differentiel($equa)
{
   
$equa = strtolower($equa);
    echo
"Equation de depart: ".$equa."<br>";
   
$final = "";
   
    for(
$i = 0; $i < strlen($equa); $i++)
    {
       
//Make a new string from the receive $equa
       
if($equa{$i} == "x" && $equa{$i+1} == "^")
        {
           
$final .= $equa{$i+2};
           
$final .= "x^";
           
$final .= $equa{$i+2}-1;
        }
        elseif(
$equa{$i} == "+" || $equa{$i} == "-")
        {
           
$final .= $equa{$i};
        }
        elseif(
is_numeric($equa{$i}) && $i == 0)
        {
           
//gerer parenthese et autre terme generaux + gerer ^apres: 2^2
           
$final .= $equa{$i}."*";
        }
        elseif(
is_numeric($equa{$i}) && $i > 0 && $equa{$i-1} != "^")
        {
           
//gerer ^apres: 2^2
           
$final .= $equa{$i}."*";
        }
        elseif(
$equa{$i} == "^")
        {
            continue;
        }
        elseif(
is_numeric($equa{$i}) && $equa{$i-1} == "^")
        {
            continue;
        }
        else
        {
            if(
$equa{$i} == "x")
            {
               
$final .= 1;
            }
            else
            {
               
$final .= $equa{$i};
            }
        }
    }
   
//
    //Manage multiplication add in the previous string $final
    //
   
$finalMul = "";
    for(
$i = 0; $i < strlen($final); $i++)
    {
        if(
is_numeric($final{$i}) && $final{$i+1} == "*" && is_numeric($final{$i+2}))
        {
           
$finalMul .= $final{$i}*$final{$i+2};
        }
        elseif(
$final{$i} == "*")
        {
            continue;
        }
        elseif(
is_numeric($final{$i}) && $final{$i+1} != "*" && $final{$i-1} == "*")
        {
            continue;
        }
        else
        {
           
$finalMul .= $final{$i};   
        }
    }
    echo
"equa final: ".$finalMul;
}
?>

I know this is not optimal but i've done this quick :)
If you guys have any comment just email me.
I also want to do this fonction In C to add to phpCore maybe soon...
Patoff
moc.erawtfostym@evad
27-May-2004 04:04
The fastest O(1) factorial function has a lookup table of all the factorials that fit within the output range. With an array of the first 34 (float) or 170 (double) factorials, you get identical results in a fraction of the time.
churkl at hotmail dot com
26-May-2004 10:32
Here is my factorial function which i think is very simple and without any confusion. email me comments if you like if i had something wrong.

<?php
function factorial($number)
{
   
$temp = 1;
    while (
$number > 1){
       
$temp *= $number--;
    }
    return
$temp;
}
?>
ausvald at tut dot by
01-May-2004 02:48
I see there are some factorial functions below.

I'll provide the best one:

<?
function factorial($n){ $n=(int)$n;
 
$f=1;
  for(;
$n>0;--$n) $f*=$n;
  return
$f;
}
?>
florian at shellfire dot de
28-Apr-2004 11:48
Please note that shorter is not always better
(meaning that really short faculty implementation above).

In my opinion, a clearer way to code this is, including a check
for negative or non-integer values.

In order to calculate the faculty of a positive integer,
an iterative way (which might be harder to understand)
is usually a bit faster, but I am using it only for small
values so it is not really important to me:

<?php

   
// Calculate the Faculty of a positive int-value
   
function iFaculty($a_iFac)
    {
      if (
$a_iFac > 0)
      {
          return
$a_iFac * $this->iFaculty($a_iFac - 1);
      }
      elseif (
$a_iFac == 0)
      {
          return
1;
      }
      else
      {
          return
0// Wrong argument!
     
}
    }
?>

I've also written another function to calculate the
binomial coefficient of 2 values, I didn't find it anywhere yet so I hope it might help someone (works fine with the above stated faculty-function and ready to be used inside of your own classes!)

<?php

   
// calculates the binomial coefficient "n over k" of 2 positive int values
    // for n >= k
   
function iBinCoeff($a_iN, $a_iK)
    {
       
// the binomial coefficient is defined as n! / [ (n-k)! * k! ]
       
return $this->iFaculty($a_iN) / ($this->iFaculty($a_iN - $a_iK) * $this->iFaculty($a_iK));   
    }

?>
Chronial "at" cyberpunkuniverse.de
13-Jan-2004 10:47
Here are are a nPr and a nPc function
(had to define NaN - don't know, how to this the "rigth" way)

<?php
define
(NaN,acos(1.01));

function
nCr($n,$r){
   if (
$r > $n)
      return
NaN;
   if ((
$n-$r) < $r)
      return
nCr($n,($n-$r));
  
$return = 1;
   for (
$i=0;$i < $r;$i++){
     
$return *= ($n-$i)/($i+1);
   }
   return
$return;
}

function
nPr($n,$r){
   if (
$r > $n)
      return
NaN;
   if (
$r)
      return
$n*(nPr($n-1,$r-1));
   else
      return
1;
}
?>
chris at free-source dot com
07-Oct-2003 06:37
to "convert" scientific notation to a float simply cast it:
<?php
$val
= '3.5e4';
$val = (float) $val;
echo
$val;
?>

output:
35000
jl85 at yahoo dot com
05-Oct-2003 01:00
Here's yet another greatest common denominator (gcd) function, a reeeeally small one.

function gcd($n,$m){
if(!$m)return$n;return gcd($m,$n%$m);
}

It works by recursion. Not really sure about it's speed, but it's really small! This won't work on floating point numbers accurately though. If you want a floating point one, you need to have at least PHP 4, and the code would be

function gcd($n,$m){
if(!$m)return$n;return gcd($m,fmod($n,$m));
}
fabien_mornand at yahoo dot fr
01-Oct-2003 12:46
here is an algorithm to calculate gcd of a number. This is Euclid algorithm i was studying in Maths. I've converted it in php for the fun.

<?php
 
if($a && $b)
  {
$ax=$a; $bx=$b;
  
$r=fmod($a,$b);
  if(!
$r){$rx=$r;}
   while(
$r){
   
$rx=$r;
   
$a=$b;
   
$b=$r;
   
$r=fmod($a,$b);
    }
   }
echo
'PGCD ('.$ax.' , '.$bx.' ) = '.$rx;
?>
jordanolsommer at imap dot cc
27-Aug-2003 05:07
The reason the bitwise AND ("&") operator works to determine whether a number is odd or even is because odd numbers expressed in binary always have the rightmost (2^0) bit = 1 and even numbers always have the 2^0 bit = 0.

So if you do a " 1 & $num", it will return zero if the number is even (since xxxxxxx0 [the even number in binary] and 00000001 [the 1]) don't share any bits, and will return 1 if the number is odd (xxxxxx1 and 000001).

a clever way of doing things, but $num % 2 would work as well i think :).
matthew_gaddis at yahoo dot com
24-Apr-2003 11:23
Here is a cleaner factorial function:

function factorial($s){
    if($s) $r = $s * factorial($s - 1);
    else $r = 1;
    return $r;
}
jerry dot wilborn at fast dot net
16-Apr-2003 08:10
Here is how to calculate standard deviation in PHP where $samples is an array of incrementing numeric keys and the values are your samples:

$sample_count = count($samples);

for ($current_sample = 0; $sample_count > $current_sample; ++$current_sample) $sample_square[$current_sample] = pow($samples[$current_sample], 2);

$standard_deviation = sqrt(array_sum($sample_square) / $sample_count - pow((array_sum($samples) / $sample_count), 2));
jl85 at yahoo dot com
22-Feb-2003 05:04
Theres another faster way of doing even/odd number checking by using bitwise operators. Don't ask me how it works, I just found this out by experimenting with it (could the editor possibly explain?)

if ((1&$num)) {
 echo "$num is odd";
}

if (!(1&$num)) {
 echo "$num is even";
}

How it works is (1&$num) returns a 1 for odd numbers and returns 0 when it's an even number.
php at casaforge dot com (Hal)
01-Feb-2003 02:25
This might be useful in generating fractional numbers for construction, if only because most carpenters would rather put a nail in your foot than hear about any number that ends with .8125".

Since I couldn't figure out the fraction code above, this is my simple-minded take on the problem. Also, align by "char" doesn't seem to work yet in html, so it seems necessary to use tables (egad!) to make numbers align properly. The following code illustrates a way to make a dynamically sized table with aligned fractions from an array of random numbers. Since I don't care about fractions less than 1/16, this rounds them into oblivion. Also, it sorts the list from long to short and collates multiples in the array. One bit of cleverness here (gleaned from these pages) that might not be obvious: I'm using 1 *bitwise and* (1 &) to determine odd numbers.

If you copy and paste the following code, try refreshing the page a few times to see how the table adjusts itself.

<?php

// get some numbers to play with

$x = rand(0,130000)/10;
$y = rand(0,1200);
$z = rand(0,4)/64;
$array = array($x, $x, $x, $y, $y, $z, 324.19, 425/7, sqrt(2), pi(), pi());

// functions

function mult($n) { return intval (round ($n*16)); }

function
frac($num) { $mod = fmod ($num,1)*16;
if (
1 & $mod) { return " - ".$mod."/16"; }
else
$mod = $mod/2;
if (
1 & $mod) { return " - ".$mod."/8"; }
else
$mod = $mod/2;
if (
1 & $mod) { return " - ".$mod."/4"; }
else
$mod = $mod/2;
if (
1 & $mod) {return " - ".$mod."/2";}
}

// make a table

echo '<table>';
$array = array_map("mult", $array);
$array = (array_filter($array, strval)); //get rid of zeros
$array = (array_count_values ($array));
krsort ($array);
while (list (
$key, $val) = each ($array)) {
$key = $key/16;
echo
"<tr><td>$val</td><td>&nbsp; @ &nbsp;</td><td align=\"right\">".intval($key)." </td><td> ".frac($key)." </td></tr>";<