Extension:BCmath/Glossary

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

Terms and concepts

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Arbitrary precision
When calculations are not limited by specific register sizes it is referred to as 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 (-∞).
NaN (nan)
Not-a-Number is the value of a calculation that has no valid representation as a number. It is called nan internally.
A NaN can have a payload that further clarify what it is or represents.
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 scale to most operations.
The BCmath extension tries to estimate the scale factor if it is missing.
Self (self)
The actual instance, the “self”, in this case holding a number. It is called self internally.

Operations

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add
Add the addend to augend.
sub
Subtract the subtrahend from minuend.
mul
Multiply the multiplicator with multiplier.
div
Divide the divisor from dividend
mod
Modulus the divisor from dividend.
pow
Power the base to exponent.
powmod
Power the base to exponent and then modulus divisor.
sqrt
Square root of the operand.
eq
Is left side equal to right side.
lt
Is left side less than right side.
le
Is left side less than or equal to right side.
{{anchor|gt|greater-than} gt
Is left side greater than right side.
ge
Is left side greater than or equal to right side.
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