erfc, erfcf, erfcl

 

C

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Headers

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Program utilities

Variadic function support

Error handling

Dynamic memory management

Strings library

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Numerics

Date and time utilities

Input/output support

Localization support

Concurrency support (C11)

Technical Specifications

Symbol index

 

Numerics

Common mathematical functions

Floating-point environment (C99)

Pseudo-random number generation

Complex number arithmetic (C99)

Type-generic math (C99)

 

Common mathematical functions

Types
div_tldiv_tlldiv_timaxdiv_t (C99)(C99)     float_tdouble_t (C99)(C99)     _Decimal32_t_Decimal64_t (C23)(C23)
Functions
Basic operations abslabsllabsimaxabs (C99)(C99) fabs divldivlldivimaxdiv (C99)(C99) fmod remainder (C99) remquo (C99) fma (C99) fdim (C99) nannanfnanlnandN (C99)(C99)(C99)(C23) Maximum/minimum operations fmax (C99) fmaximum (C23) fmaximum_mag (C23) fmaximum_num (C23) fmaximum_mag_num (C23)     fmin (C99) fminimum (C23) fminimum_mag (C23) fminimum_num (C23) fminimum_mag_num (C23) Exponential functions exp exp10 (C23) exp2 (C99) expm1 (C99) exp10m1 (C23) exp2m1 (C23) log log10 log2 (C99) log1plogp1 (C99)(C23) log10p1 (C23) log2p1 (C23) Power functions sqrt cbrt (C99) rootn (C23) rsqrt (C23) hypot (C99) compound (C23) pow pown (C23) powr (C23) Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions sin cos tan asin acos atan atan2 sinpi (C23) cospi (C23) tanpi (C23) asinpi (C23) acospi (C23) atanpi (C23) atan2pi (C23) sinh cosh tanh asinh (C99) acosh (C99) atanh (C99)	Error and gamma functions erf (C99) erfc (C99) lgamma (C99) tgamma (C99) Nearest integer floating-point operations ceil floor roundlroundllround (C99)(C99)(C99) roundeven (C23) trunc (C99) nearbyint (C99) rintlrintllrint (C99)(C99)(C99) fromfpfromfpxufromfpufromfpx (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) Floating-point manipulation functions ldexp frexp scalbnscalbln (C99)(C99) ilogbllogb (C99)(C23) logb (C99) modf nextafternexttoward (C99)(C99) nextupnextdown (C23)(C23) copysign (C99) canonicalize (C23) Narrowing operations fadd (C23) fsub (C23) fmul (C23) fdiv (C23) ffma (C23) fsqrt (C23) Quantum and quantum exponent functions quantizedN (C23) samequantumdN (C23) quantumdN (C23) llquantexpdN (C23) Decimal re-encoding functions encodedecdN (C23) decodedecdN (C23) encodebindN (C23) decodebindN (C23) Total order and payload functions totalorder (C23) getpayload (C23) setpayload (C23) setpayloadsig (C23) Classification fpclassify (C99) iscanonical (C23) isfinite (C99) isinf (C99) isnan (C99) isnormal (C99) signbit (C99) issubnormal (C23) iszero (C23) isgreater (C99) isgreaterequal (C99) isless (C99) islessequal (C99) islessgreater (C99) isunordered (C99) issignaling (C23) iseqsig (C23)
Macro constants
Special floating-point values HUGE_VALFHUGE_VALHUGE_VALLHUGE_VALDN (C99)(C99)(C23) INFINITYDEC_INFINITY (C99)(C23) NANDEC_NAN (C99)(C23) Arguments and return values FP_ILOGB0FP_ILOGBNAN (C99)(C99) FP_INT_UPWARDFP_INT_DOWNWARDFP_INT_TOWARDZEROFP_INT_TONEARESTFROMZEROFP_INT_TONEAREST (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)     FP_LLOGB0FP_LLOGBNAN (C23)(C23) FP_NORMALFP_SUBNORMALFP_ZEROFP_INFINITEFP_NAN (C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)     Error handling MATH_ERRNOMATH_ERRNOEXCEPT (C99)(C99) math_errhandling (C99)	Fast operation indicators FP_FAST_FMAFFP_FAST_FMA (C99)(C99) FP_FAST_FADDFP_FAST_FADDLFP_FAST_DADDLFP_FAST_DMADDDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)     FP_FAST_FMULFP_FAST_FMULLFP_FAST_DMULLFP_FAST_DMMULDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FFMAFP_FAST_FFMALFP_FAST_DFMALFP_FAST_DMFMADN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FMALFP_FAST_FMADN (C99)(C23) FP_FAST_FSUBFP_FAST_FSUBLFP_FAST_DSUBLFP_FAST_DMSUBDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FDIVFP_FAST_FDIVLFP_FAST_DDIVLFP_FAST_DMDIVDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FSQRTFP_FAST_FSQRTLFP_FAST_DSQRTLFP_FAST_DMSQRTDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)

 

Defined in header <math.h>
float       erfcf( float arg );	(1)	(since C99)
double      erfc( double arg );	(2)	(since C99)
long double erfcl( long double arg );	(3)	(since C99)
Defined in header <tgmath.h>
#define erfc( arg )	(4)	(since C99)

1-3) Computes the complementary error function of arg, that is 1.0 - erf(arg), but without loss of precision for large arg.

4) Type-generic macro: If arg has type long double, erfcl is called. Otherwise, if arg has integer type or the type double, erfc is called. Otherwise, erfcf is called.

Parameters

arg

-

floating-point value

Return value

If no errors occur, value of the complementary error function of arg, that is \(\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi} }\int_{arg}^{\infty}{e^{-{t^2} }\mathsf{d}t}\)

2

√π

∫∞
arge^-t2
dt or \({\small 1-\operatorname{erf}(arg)}\)1-erf(arg), is returned.

If a range error occurs due to underflow, the correct result (after rounding) is returned.

Error handling

Errors are reported as specified in math_errhandling.

If the implementation supports IEEE floating-point arithmetic (IEC 60559),

• If the argument is +∞, +0 is returned.
• If the argument is -∞, 2 is returned.
• If the argument is NaN, NaN is returned.

Notes

For the IEEE-compatible type double, underflow is guaranteed if arg > 26.55.

Example

Run this code

#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
double normalCDF(double x) // Phi(-∞, x) aka N(x)
{
    return erfc(-x / sqrt(2)) / 2;
}
 
int main(void)
{
    puts("normal cumulative distribution function:");
    for (double n = 0; n < 1; n += 0.1)
        printf("normalCDF(%.2f) %5.2f%%\n", n, 100 * normalCDF(n));
 
    printf("special values:\n"
           "erfc(-Inf) = %f\n"
           "erfc(Inf) = %f\n",
           erfc(-INFINITY),
           erfc(INFINITY));
}

Output:

normal cumulative distribution function:
normalCDF(0.00) 50.00%
normalCDF(0.10) 53.98%
normalCDF(0.20) 57.93%
normalCDF(0.30) 61.79%
normalCDF(0.40) 65.54%
normalCDF(0.50) 69.15%
normalCDF(0.60) 72.57%
normalCDF(0.70) 75.80%
normalCDF(0.80) 78.81%
normalCDF(0.90) 81.59%
normalCDF(1.00) 84.13%
special values:
erfc(-Inf) = 2.000000
erfc(Inf) = 0.000000

References

• C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):

• 7.12.8.2 The erfc functions (p: 249-250)

• 7.25 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 373-375)

• F.10.5.2 The erfc functions (p: 525)

• C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

• 7.12.8.2 The erfc functions (p: 249-250)

• 7.25 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 373-375)

• F.10.5.2 The erfc functions (p: 525)

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.12.8.2 The erfc functions (p: 249-250)

• 7.25 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 373-375)

• F.10.5.2 The erfc functions (p: 525)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.12.8.2 The erfc functions (p: 230)

• 7.22 Type-generic math <tgmath.h> (p: 335-337)

• F.9.5.2 The erfc functions (p: 462)

See also

erferfferfl (C99)(C99)(C99)	computes error function (function)
C++ documentation for erfc

External links

Weisstein, Eric W. "Erfc." From MathWorld — A Wolfram Web Resource.