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TGAMMA(3)                     Linux Programmer's Manual                     TGAMMA(3)

NAME         top

       tgamma, tgammaf, tgammal - true gamma function

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <math.h>

       double tgamma(double x);
       float tgammaf(float x);
       long double tgammal(long double x);

       Link with -lm.

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       tgamma(), tgammaf(), tgammal():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600 || _ISOC99_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L;
           or cc -std=c99

DESCRIPTION         top

       The Gamma function is defined by

           Gamma(x) = integral from 0 to infinity of t^(x-1) e^-t dt

       It is defined for every real number except for nonpositive integers.  For
       nonnegative integral m one has

           Gamma(m+1) = m!

       and, more generally, for all x:

           Gamma(x+1) = x * Gamma(x)

       Furthermore, the following is valid for all values of x outside the poles:

           Gamma(x) * Gamma(1 - x) = PI / sin(PI * x)

RETURN VALUE         top

       On success, these functions return Gamma(x).

       If x is a NaN, a NaN is returned.

       If x is positive infinity, positive infinity is returned.

       If x is a negative integer, or is negative infinity, a domain error occurs,
       and a NaN is returned.

       If the result overflows, a range error occurs, and the functions return
       HUGE_VAL, HUGE_VALF, or HUGE_VALL, respectively, with the correct mathematical
       sign.

       If the result underflows, a range error occurs, and the functions return 0,
       with the correct mathematical sign.

       If x is -0 or +0, a pole error occurs, and the functions return HUGE_VAL,
       HUGE_VALF, or HUGE_VALL, respectively, with the same sign as the 0.

ERRORS         top

       See math_error(7) for information on how to determine whether an error has
       occurred when calling these functions.

       The following errors can occur:

       Domain error: x is a negative integer, or negative infinity
              errno is set to EDOM.  An invalid floating-point exception (FE_INVALID)
              is raised (but see BUGS).

       Pole error: x is +0 or -0
              errno is set to ERANGE.  A divide-by-zero floating-point exception
              (FE_DIVBYZERO) is raised.

       Range error: result overflow
              errno is set to ERANGE.  An overflow floating-point exception
              (FE_OVERFLOW) is raised.

       glibc also gives the following error which is not specified in C99 or
       POSIX.1-2001.

       Range error: result underflow
              An underflow floating-point exception (FE_UNDERFLOW) is raised.

              errno is not set for this case.

VERSIONS         top

       These functions first appeared in glibc in version 2.1.

CONFORMING TO         top

       C99, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES         top

       This function had to be called "true gamma function" since there is already a
       function gamma(3) that returns something else (see gamma(3) for details).

BUGS         top

       If x is negative infinity, errno is not set (it should be set to EDOM).

       In glibc versions 2.3.3 and earlier, an argument of +0 or -0 incorrectly
       produced a domain error (errno set to EDOM and an FE_INVALID exception
       raised), rather than a pole error.

SEE ALSO         top

       gamma(3), lgamma(3)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.32 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
       at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                                   2010-09-20                            TGAMMA(3)

HTML rendering created 2010-12-03 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface

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