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Name

frexp, frexpf, frexpl - convert floating-point number to fractional and integral components

Library

Math library ( libm ", " -lm )

Synopsis

#include <math.h> 
double frexp(double " x ", int * exp );
float frexpf(float " x ", int * exp );
long double frexpl(long double " x ", int * exp );

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

frexpf() frexpl()

    _ISOC99_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
        || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
        || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

Description

These functions are used to split the number x into a normalized fraction and an exponent which is stored in exp.

Return Value

These functions return the normalized fraction. If the argument x is not zero, the normalized fraction is x times a power of two, and its absolute value is always in the range 1/2 (inclusive) to 1 (exclusive), that is, [0.5,1).

If x is zero, then the normalized fraction is zero and zero is stored in exp.

If x is a NaN, a NaN is returned, and the value of *exp is unspecified.

If x is positive infinity (negative infinity), positive infinity (negative infinity) is returned, and the value of *exp is unspecified.

Errors

No errors occur.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). allbox; lbx lb lb T{ frexp()frexpf()frexpl()
InterfaceAttributeValue
T}Thread safetyMT-Safe

Standards

C11, POSIX.1-2008.

History

C99, POSIX.1-2001.

The variant returning double also conforms to SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89.

Examples

The program below produces results such as the following:

"$" " ./a.out 2560" frexp(2560, &e) = 0.625: 0.625 * 2^12 = 2560
"$" " ./a.out -4" frexp(-4, &e) = -0.5: -0.5 * 2^3 = -4

Program Source


#include <float.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    double x, r;
    int exp;

    x = strtod(argv[1], NULL);
    r = frexp(x, &exp);

    printf("frexp(%g, &e) = %g: %g * %d^%d = %g\en",
           x, r, r, FLT_RADIX, exp, x);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

See Also

  1. ldexp(3),
  2. modf(3)