FDIM

Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (3P)
Updated: 2003
Index Return to Main Contents
 

PROLOG

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.  

NAME

fdim, fdimf, fdiml - compute positive difference between two floating-point numbers  

SYNOPSIS

#include <math.h>

double fdim(double x, double y);
float fdimf(float x, float y);
long double fdiml(long double x, long double y);
 

DESCRIPTION

These functions shall determine the positive difference between their arguments. If x is greater than y, x- y is returned. If x is less than or equal to y, +0 is returned.

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 positive difference value.

If x- y is positive and overflows, a range error shall occur and fdim(), fdimf(), and fdiml() shall return the value of the macro HUGE_VAL, HUGE_VALF, and HUGE_VALL, respectively.

If x- y is positive and underflows, a range error may occur, and either ( x- y) (if representable),  or 0.0 (if supported), or an implementation-defined value shall be returned.

If x or y is NaN, a NaN shall be returned.  

ERRORS

The fdim() function shall fail if:

Range Error
The result overflows.

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 overflow floating-point exception shall be raised.

The fdim() function 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.

The following sections are informative.  

EXAMPLES

None.  

APPLICATION USAGE

On implementations supporting IEEE Std 754-1985, x- y cannot underflow, and hence the 0.0 return value is shaded as an extension for implementations supporting the XSI extension rather than an MX extension.

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

feclearexcept(), fetestexcept(), fmax(), fmin(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 4.18, Treatment of Error Conditions for Mathematical Functions, <math.h>  

COPYRIGHT

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .