erf, erff, erfl

 

C

Language

headers

Type support

Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Thread support (C11)

Atomic operations (C11)

Technical Specifications

 

Numerics

Common mathematical functions

Floating-point environment

Complex number arithmetics

Random number generation

Type-generic math

 

Common mathematical functions

Functions
Basic operations
abslabsllabsimaxabs (C99) fabs divldivlldivimaxdiv (C99) fmod	remainder (C99) remquo (C99) fma (C99) fmax (C99) fmin (C99) fdim (C99) nannanfnanl (C99)(C99)(C99)
Exponential functions
exp exp2 (C99) expm1 (C99)	log log10 log1p (C99) log2 (C99)
Power functions
sqrt cbrt (C99)	hypot (C99) pow
Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions
sin cos tan asin acos atan atan2	sinh cosh tanh asinh (C99) acosh (C99) atanh (C99)
Error and gamma functions
erf (C99) erfc (C99)	lgamma (C99) tgamma (C99)
Nearest integer floating point operations
ceil floor roundlroundllround (C99)(C99)(C99)	trunc (C99) nearbyint (C99) rintlrintllrint (C99)(C99)(C99)
Floating point manipulation functions
ldexp scalbnscalbln (C99)(C99) ilogb (C99) logb (C99)	frexp modf nextafternexttoward (C99)(C99) copysign (C99)
Classification
fpclassify (C99) isfinite (C99) isinf (C99) isnan (C99) isnormal (C99) signbit (C99)	isgreater (C99) isgreaterequal (C99) isless (C99) islessequal (C99) islessgreater (C99) isunordered (C99)
Macro constants
HUGE_VALFHUGE_VALHUGE_VALL (C99)(C99)	FP_NORMALFP_SUBNORMALFP_ZEROFP_INFINITEFP_NAN (C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)

 

Defined in header <math.h>
float       erff( float arg );	(1)	(since C99)
double      erf( double arg );	(2)	(since C99)
long double erfl( long double arg );	(3)	(since C99)
Defined in header <tgmath.h>
#define erf( arg )	(4)	(since C99)

1-3) Computes the error function of arg.

4) Type-generic macro: If arg has type long double, erfl is called. Otherwise, if arg has integer type or the type double, erf is called. Otherwise, erff is called.

Parameters

arg

-

floating point value

Return value

If no errors occur, value of the error function of arg, that is

2

√π

∫arg
0e^-t2
dt, is returned. If a range error occurs due to underflow, the correct result (after rounding), that is

2*arg

√π

, is returned.

Error handling

Errors are reported as specified in math_errhandling.

If the implementation supports IEEE floating-point arithmetic (IEC 60559),

• If the argument is ±0, ±0 is returned
• If the argument is ±∞, ±1 is returned
• If the argument is NaN, NaN is returned

Notes

Underflow is guaranteed if |arg| < DBL_MIN*(sqrt(π)/2).

erf(

x

σ√2

) is the probability that a measurement whose errors are subject to a normal distribution with standard deviation σ is less than x away from the mean value.

Example

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
double phi(double x1, double x2)
{
    return (erf(x2/sqrt(2)) - erf(x1/sqrt(2)))/2;
}
int main(void)
{
    puts("normal variate probabilities:");
    for(int n=-4; n<4; ++n)
        printf("[%2d:%2d]: %5.2f%%\n", n, n+1, 100*phi(n, n+1));
 
    puts("special values:");
    printf("erf(-0) = %f\n", erf(-0.0));
    printf("erf(Inf) = %f\n", erf(INFINITY));
}

Output:

normal variate probabilities:
[-4:-3]:  0.13%
[-3:-2]:  2.14%
[-2:-1]: 13.59%
[-1: 0]: 34.13%
[ 0: 1]: 34.13%
[ 1: 2]: 13.59%
[ 2: 3]:  2.14%
[ 3: 4]:  0.13%
special values:
erf(-0) = -0.000000
erf(Inf) = 1.000000

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.12.8.1 The erf functions (p: 249)

• 7.25 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 373-375)

• F.10.5.1 The erf functions (p: 525)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.12.8.1 The erf functions (p: 230)

• 7.22 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 335-337)

• F.9.5.1 The erf functions (p: 462)

See also

erfcerfcferfcl (C99)(C99)(C99)	computes complementary error function (function)
C++ documentation for erf

External links

Weisstein, Eric W. "Erf." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.