NAME

cos, cosf, cosl — cosine function

SYNOPSIS

#include <math.h>

double cos(double x);
float cosf(float x);
long double cosl(long double x);


DESCRIPTION

^[CX] 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.1-2024 defers to the ISO C standard.

These functions shall compute the cosine of their argument x, measured in radians.

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 cosine of x.

^[MX] If x is NaN, a NaN shall be returned.

If x is ±0, the value 1.0 shall be returned.

If x is ±Inf, a domain error shall occur, and a NaN shall be returned.

ERRORS

These functions shall fail if:

Domain Error

^[MX] The x argument is ±Inf.

If the integer expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERRNO) is non-zero, then errno shall be set to [EDOM]. If the integer expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERREXCEPT) is non-zero, then the invalid floating-point exception shall be raised.

EXAMPLES

Taking the Cosine of a 45-Degree Angle

#include <math.h>
...
double radians = 45 * M_PI / 180;
double result;
...
result = cos(radians);

APPLICATION USAGE

These functions may lose accuracy when their argument is near an odd multiple of ℼ/2 or is far from 0.

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

acos , feclearexcept , fetestexcept , isnan , sin , tan

XBD 4.23 Treatment of Error Conditions for Mathematical Functions , <math.h>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 5

The DESCRIPTION is updated to indicate how an application should check for an error. This text was previously published in the APPLICATION USAGE section.

Issue 6

The cosf() and cosl() functions are added for alignment with the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.

The DESCRIPTION, RETURN VALUE, ERRORS, and APPLICATION USAGE sections are revised to align with the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.

IEC 60559:1989 standard floating-point extensions over the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard are marked.

Issue 7

POSIX.1-2008, Technical Corrigendum 1, XSH/TC1-2008/0063 [320] is applied.