std::erf, std::erff, std::erfl

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Numerics library

Common mathematical functions

Mathematical special functions (C++17)

Mathematical constants (C++20)

Floating-point environment (C++11)

Complex numbers

Numeric arrays

Pseudo-random number generation

Factor operations

gcd (C++17)

lcm (C++17)

Interpolations

midpoint (C++20)

lerp (C++20)

Generic numeric operations

iota (C++11)

ranges::iota (C++23)

accumulate

inner_product

adjacent_difference

partial_sum

reduce (C++17)

transform_reduce (C++17)

inclusive_scan (C++17)

exclusive_scan (C++17)

transform_inclusive_scan (C++17)

transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)

Bit operations

bit_cast (C++20)

byteswap (C++23)

has_single_bit (C++20)

bit_ceil (C++20)

bit_floor (C++20)

bit_width (C++20)

rotl (C++20)

rotr (C++20)

countl_zero (C++20)

countl_one (C++20)

countr_zero (C++20)

countr_one (C++20)

popcount (C++20)

endian (C++20)

 

Common mathematical functions

Functions
Basic operations
abs(int)labsllabsimaxabs (C++11) abs(float)fabs divldivlldivimaxdiv (C++11) fmod	remainder (C++11) remquo (C++11) fma (C++11) fmax (C++11) fmin (C++11) fdim (C++11) nannanfnanl (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
Exponential functions
exp exp2 (C++11) expm1 (C++11)	log log10 log1p (C++11) log2 (C++11)
Power functions
sqrt cbrt (C++11)	hypot (C++11) pow
Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions
sin cos tan asin acos atan atan2	sinh cosh tanh asinh (C++11) acosh (C++11) atanh (C++11)

Error and gamma functions
erf (C++11) erfc (C++11)	lgamma (C++11) tgamma (C++11)
Nearest integer floating point operations
ceil floor roundlroundllround (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)	trunc (C++11) nearbyint (C++11) rintlrintllrint (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
Floating point manipulation functions
ldexp scalbnscalbln (C++11)(C++11) ilogb (C++11) logb (C++11)	frexp modf nextafternexttoward (C++11)(C++11) copysign (C++11)
Classification/Comparison
fpclassify (C++11) isfinite (C++11) isinf (C++11) isnan (C++11) isnormal (C++11) signbit (C++11)	isgreater (C++11) isgreaterequal (C++11) isless (C++11) islessequal (C++11) islessgreater (C++11) isunordered (C++11)
Macro constants
HUGE_VALFHUGE_VALHUGE_VALL (C++11)(C++11) INFINITY (C++11) NAN (C++11) math_errhandlingMATH_ERRNOMATH_ERREXCEPT (C++11)	FP_NORMALFP_SUBNORMALFP_ZEROFP_INFINITEFP_NAN (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)(C++11)(C++11)

 

Defined in header <cmath>
	(1)
float       erf ( float num ); double      erf ( double num ); long double erf ( long double num );			(until C++23)
/* floating-point-type */             erf ( /* floating-point-type */ num );			(since C++23) (constexpr since C++26)
float       erff( float num );		(2)	(since C++11) (constexpr since C++26)
long double erfl( long double num );		(3)	(since C++11) (constexpr since C++26)
Additional overloads (since C++11)
Defined in header <cmath>
template< class Integer > double      erf ( Integer num );		(A)	(constexpr since C++26)

1-3) Computes the error function of num. The library provides overloads of std::erf for all cv-unqualified floating-point types as the type of the parameter. (since C++23)

A) Additional overloads are provided for all integer types, which are treated as double.

(since C++11)

Parameters

num

-

floating-point or integer value

Return value

If no errors occur, value of the error function of num, that is \(\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi} }\int_{0}^{num}{e^{-{t^2} }\mathsf{d}t}\)

2

√π

∫num
0e^-t2
dt, is returned.
If a range error occurs due to underflow, the correct result (after rounding), that is \(\frac{2\cdot num}{\sqrt{\pi} }\)

2*num

√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 |num| < DBL_MIN * (std::sqrt(π)/2)

\(\operatorname{erf}(\frac{x}{\sigma \sqrt{2} })\)erf(

x

σ√2

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

The additional overloads are not required to be provided exactly as (A). They only need to be sufficient to ensure that for their argument num of integer type, std::erf(num) has the same effect as std::erf(static_cast<double>(num)).

Example

The following example calculates the probability that a normal variate is on the interval (x1, x2):

Run this code

#include <cmath>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
 
double phi(double x1, double x2)
{
    return (std::erf(x2 / std::sqrt(2)) - std::erf(x1 / std::sqrt(2))) / 2;
}
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "Normal variate probabilities:\n"
              << std::fixed << std::setprecision(2);
    for (int n = -4; n < 4; ++n)
        std::cout << "[" << std::setw(2) << n
                  << ":" << std::setw(2) << n + 1 << "]: "
                  << std::setw(5) << 100 * phi(n, n + 1) << "%\n";
 
    std::cout << "Special values:\n"
              << "erf(-0) = " << std::erf(-0.0) << '\n'
              << "erf(Inf) = " << std::erf(INFINITY) << '\n';
}

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) = -0.00
erf(Inf) = 1.00

See also

erfcerfcferfcl (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)

complementary error function (function)

External links

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