Extension:BCmath/Glossary



Glossary for BCmath is a list of core terms and concepts for bcmath, or arbitrary-precision arithmetic.

Terms and concepts

 * Arbitrary precision
 * When calculations are not limited by specific register sizes it is referred to as arbitrary precision.
 * Wikipedia: Arbitrary-precision


 * Infinity (∞)
 * Infinite numbers are valid numbers that are represented with a particular Unicode symbol, the infinity (U+221E) codepoint.
 * An infinite number can have a sign, both a plus infinity (+∞) and a minus infinity (-∞).
 * Wikipedia: Infinity


 * NaN (nan)
 * Not-a-Number is the value of a calculation that has no valid representation as a number. It is called  internally.
 * A NaN can have a payload that further clarify what it is or represents.
 * Wikipedia: NaN


 * Operation
 * Numbers are combined they are said to be operands to an operation.
 * Operations and operands can have their own names, like addition has addend and augend.


 * Payload
 * When calculations generates a NaN, then additional information might be added to the payload.
 * Payloads might be inspected in the console, but will otherwise be silently forgotten.


 * Scale (scale)
 * The scale is how the number is shifted to process it efficiently. It is given as the argument  to most operations.
 * The BCmath extension tries to estimate the scale factor if it is missing.
 * PHP:bcscale


 * Self (self)
 * The actual instance, the “self”, in this case holding a number. It is called  internally.

Operations

 * add
 * Add the addend to augend.
 * bcadd


 * sub
 * Subtract the subtrahend from minuend.
 * bcsub


 * mul
 * Multiply the multiplicator with multiplier.
 * bcmul


 * div
 * Divide the divisor from dividend
 * bcdiv


 * mod
 * Modulus the divisor from dividend.
 * bcmod


 * pow
 * Power the base to exponent.
 * bcpow


 * powmod
 * Power the base to exponent and then modulus divisor.
 * bcpowmod


 * sqrt
 * Square root of the operand.
 * bcsqrt


 * eq
 * Is left side equal to right side.
 * bccomp


 * lt
 * Is left side less than right side.
 * bccomp


 * le
 * Is left side less than or equal to right side.
 * bccomp


 * {{anchor|gt|greater-than} gt
 * Is left side greater than right side.
 * bccomp


 * ge
 * Is left side greater than or equal to right side.
 * bccomp