TAN(3P)

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
tan, tanf, tanl — tangent function

SYNOPSIS

#include <math.h>

double tan(double x);
float tanf(float x);
long double tanl(long double x);

DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1-2017 defers to the ISO C standard.

These functions shall compute the tangent of their argument x, measured in radians.

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 tangent of x.

If the correct value would cause underflow, and is not representable, a range error may occur, and tan(), tanf(), and tanl() shall return 0.0, or (if IEC 60559 Floating-Point is not supported) an implementation-defined value no greater in magnitude than DBL_MIN, FLT_MIN, and LDBL_MIN, respectively.

If x is NaN, a NaN shall be returned.

If x is ±0, x shall be returned.

If x is subnormal, a range error may occur
and x should be returned.

If x is not returned, tan(), tanf(), and tanl() shall return an implementation-defined value no greater in magnitude than DBL_MIN, FLT_MIN, and LDBL_MIN, respectively.

If x is ±Inf, a domain error shall occur, and either a NaN (if supported), or an implementation-defined value shall be returned.

If the correct value would cause underflow, and is representable, a range error may occur and the correct value shall be returned.

If the correct value would cause overflow, a range error shall occur and tan(), tanf(), and tanl() shall return ±HUGE_VAL, ±HUGE_VALF, and ±HUGE_VALL, respectively, with the same sign as the correct value of the function.

ERRORS
These functions shall fail if:

Domain Error
    The value of x is ±Inf.

    If the integer expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERRNO) is non-zero, then errno shall be set to [EDOM]. If the integer expression (math_errhandling & MATH_ERREXCEPT) is non-zero, then the invalid floating-point exception shall be raised.

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.

These functions may fail if:

Range Error
    The result underflows, or the value of x is subnormal.

    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

  Taking the Tangent of a 45-Degree Angle

    #include <math.h>
    ...
    double radians = 45.0 * M_PI / 180;
    double result;
    ...
    result = tan (radians);

APPLICATION USAGE
There are no known floating-point representations such that for a normal argument, tan( x) is either overflow or underflow.

These functions may lose accuracy when their argument is near a multiple of π/2 or is far from 0.0.

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
atan(), feclearexcept(), fetestexcept(), isnan()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, Section 4.20, Treatment of Error Conditions for Mathematical Functions, <math.h>

COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 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 .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .