Mathematical System Functions

The following mathematical functions are supported in arithmetic processing statements (ADD, COMPUTE, DIVIDE, MULTIPLY, SUBTRACT) and in logical condition criteria:

Function Format/Length Explanation
ABS(field) same as field Absolute value of field.
ATN(field) F8 (*) Arc tangent of field.
COS(field) F8 (*)

Cosine of field.

EXP(field) F8 (*) Exponentiation of exponent field to base e , that is, efield, where e is Euler's number.
FRAC(field) same as field Fractional part of field.
INT(field) same as field Integer part of field.
LOG(field) F8 (*) Natural logarithm of field.
SGN(field) same as field Sign of field (-1, 0, +1).
SIN(field) F8 (*)

Sine of field .

SQRT(field) F8 (*)

Square root of field.

A negative value in the argument field will be treated as positive.

TAN(field) F8 (*)

Tangent of field.

VAL(field) same as target field

Extract numeric value from an alphanumeric field. The content of the field must be the alphanumeric (code page or Unicode) character representation of a numeric value. Leading or trailing blanks in the field will be ignored; decimal point and leading sign character will be processed.

If the target field is not long enough, decimal digits will be truncated (see also Field Truncation and Field Rounding in the section Rules for Arithmetic Assignment of the Programming Guide).

* These functions are evaluated as follows:

  • The argument is converted to format/length F8 and then passed to the operating system for computation.

  • The result returned by the operating system has format/length F8, which is then converted to the target format.

A field to be used with a mathematical function - except VAL - may be a constant or a scalar; its format must be numeric (N), packed numeric (P), integer (I), or floating point (F).

A field to be used with the VAL function may be a constant, a scalar, or an array; its format must be alphanumeric.

Mathematical Functions Example:

** Example 'MATHEX': Mathematical functions                             
************************************************************************
DEFINE DATA LOCAL                                                       
1 #A     (N2.1) INIT <10>                                               
1 #B     (N2.1) INIT <-6.3>                                             
1 #C     (N2.1) INIT <0>                                                
1 #LOGA  (N2.6)                                                         
1 #SQRTA (N2.6)                                                         
1 #TANA  (N2.6)                                                         
1 #ABS   (N2.1)                                                         
1 #FRAC  (N2.1)                                                         
1 #INT   (N2.1)                                                         
1 #SGN   (N1)                                                           
END-DEFINE                                                              
*                                                                       
COMPUTE #LOGA = LOG(#A)                                                 
WRITE NOTITLE '=' #A 5X 'LOG'         40T #LOGA                         
*                                                                       
COMPUTE #SQRTA = SQRT(#A)                                               
WRITE         '=' #A 5X 'SQUARE ROOT' 40T #SQRTA
*                                               
COMPUTE #TANA  = TAN(#A)                        
WRITE         '=' #A 5X 'TANGENT'     40T #TANA 
*                                               
COMPUTE #ABS   = ABS(#B)                        
WRITE     //  '=' #B 5X 'ABSOLUTE'    40T #ABS  
*                                               
COMPUTE #FRAC  = FRAC(#B)                       
WRITE         '=' #B 5X 'FRACTIONAL'  40T #FRAC 
*                                               
COMPUTE #INT   = INT(#B)                        
WRITE         '=' #B 5X 'INTEGER'     40T #INT  
*                                               
COMPUTE #SGN   = SGN(#A)                        
WRITE      // '=' #A 5X 'SIGN'        40T #SGN  
*                                               
COMPUTE #SGN   = SGN(#B)                        
WRITE         '=' #B 5X 'SIGN'        40T #SGN  
*                                             
COMPUTE #SGN   = SGN(#C)                      
WRITE         '=' #C 5X 'SIGN'        40T #SGN
*                                             
END                                        

Output of program MATHEX:

#A:  10.0     LOG                        2.302585
#A:  10.0     SQUARE ROOT                3.162277
#A:  10.0     TANGENT                    0.648360
                                                 
                                                 
#B:  -6.3     ABSOLUTE                   6.3     
#B:  -6.3     FRACTIONAL                -0.3     
#B:  -6.3     INTEGER                   -6.0     
                                                 
                                                 
#A:  10.0     SIGN                      1        
#B:  -6.3     SIGN                     -1        
#C:   0.0     SIGN                      0