NAME

erfc, erfcf, erfcl — complementary error functions

SYNOPSIS

#include <math.h>

double erfc(double x);
float erfcf(float x);
long double erfcl(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 complementary error function 1.0 - erf(x).

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 complementary error function.

If the correct value would cause underflow, ^[MXX]  and is not representable,  a range error may occur, and erfc(), erfcf(), and erfcl() shall return ^[MXX]  0.0, or  (if the IEC 60559 Floating-Point option is not supported) an implementation-defined value no greater in magnitude than DBL_MIN, FLT_MIN, and LDBL_MIN, respectively.

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

If x is ±0, +1 shall be returned.

If x is -Inf, +2 shall be returned.

If x is +Inf, +0 shall be returned.

^[MXX] If the correct value would cause underflow and is representable, a range error may occur and the correct value shall 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.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

The erfc() function is provided because of the extreme loss of relative accuracy if erf(x) is called for large x and the result subtracted from 1.0.

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

erf , feclearexcept , fetestexcept , isnan

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 erfc() function is no longer marked as an extension.

These functions are split out from the erf() reference page.

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/TC1-2008/0093 [68] and XSH/TC1-2008/0094 [68] are applied.

POSIX.1-2008, Technical Corrigendum 2, XSH/TC2-2008/0096 [630] is applied.