BC Math Functions

bcadd — Add two arbitrary precision numbers
bccomp — Compare two arbitrary precision numbers
bcdiv — Divide two arbitrary precision numbers
bcmod — Get modulus of an arbitrary precision number
bcmul — Multiply two arbitrary precision number
bcpow — Raise an arbitrary precision number to another
bcpowmod — Raise an arbitrary precision number to another, reduced by a specified modulus
bcscale — Set default scale parameter for all bc math functions
bcsqrt — Get the square root of an arbitrary precision number
bcsub — Subtract one arbitrary precision number from another

bcadd

BC Math

Last updated: Fri, 27 Jun 2008

add a note User Contributed Notes
BC Math Functions

Bouke Haarsma
29-Mar-2008 07:40


Please be aware not to use/have spaces in your strings. It took me a while to find the error in some advanced calculations!



<?php

echo bcadd("1", "2"); // 3

echo bcadd("1", "2 "); // 1

echo bcadd("1", " 2"); // 1

?>

bebaWork at gmail dot com
05-Dec-2007 09:11


For install on Feora Core:



> yum install php-bcmath

> /etc/init.d/httpd restart

udochen at gmail dot com
27-Feb-2007 02:48


Code below implements standard rounding on 5 or higer round up, else don't round.  There wasn't a round function for the BC functions, so here is a simple one that works. Same args as round, except takes strings and returns a string for more BC operations.



----------------



function roundbc($x, $p) {



     $x = trim($x);

     $data = explode(".",$x);



     if(substr($data[1],$p,1) >= "5") {



           //generate the add string.

           $i=0;

           $addString = "5";

           while($i < $p) {

               $addString = "0" . $addString;

               $i++;

           }//end while.

           $addString = "." . $addString;



           //now add the addString to the original fraction.

           $sum = bcadd($data[0] . "." . $data   [1],$addString,$p+1);



           //explode the result.

           $sumData = explode(".",$sum);



           //now, return the correct precision on the rounded number.

           return $sumData[0] . "." . substr($sumData[1],0,$p);



      } else {



           //don't round the value and return the orignal to the desired

           //precision or less.

           return $data[0] . "." . substr($data[1],0,$p);



      }//end if/else.



   }//end roundbc.

mgcclx at gmail dot com
29-Jan-2007 09:52


I wrote this function with many BCMath functions. It should be the fastest function in PHP to find the number pi into any precision, my test is it generate 2000 digits after the dot in 8 seconds. I don't think you need anything more than that.

<?php

//bcpi function with Gauss-Legendre algorithm

//by Chao Xu (Mgccl)

function bcpi($precision){

    $limit = ceil(log($precision)/log(2))-1;

    bcscale($precision+6);

    $a = 1;

    $b = bcdiv(1,bcsqrt(2));

    $t = 1/4;

    $p = 1;

    while($n < $limit){

        $x = bcdiv(bcadd($a,$b),2);

        $y = bcsqrt(bcmul($a, $b));

        $t = bcsub($t, bcmul($p,bcpow(bcsub($a,$x),2)));

        $a = $x;

        $b = $y;

        $p = bcmul(2,$p);

        ++$n;

    }

    return bcdiv(bcpow(bcadd($a, $b),2),bcmul(4,$t),$precision);

}

?>

marcus at synchromedia dot co dot uk
09-Aug-2006 12:17


Oops, first posting contained wrong code... sorry.

An amendment to the entry by pulstar at mail dot com - the digits() function can be made much faster (remove the line breaks from the big string, and make sure you don't miss any characters!):



function digits2($base) {

    if($base < 64) {

        return substr('0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-_', 0, $base);

    } else {

        return substr("\x0\x1\x2\x3\x4\x5\x6\x7\x8\x9\xa\xb\xc\xd

\xe\xf\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d

\x1e\x1f\x20!\x22#\x24%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>

\x3f@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]

^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~\x7f\x80\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85

\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90\x91\x92\x93\x94\x95

\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f\xa0\xa1\xa2\xa3\xa4\xa5

\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5

\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5

\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5

\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5

\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6

\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff", 0, $base);

    }

}



in my benchmarks, this is around 150x faster for 256 digits

stonehew ut gm a il det com
25-Nov-2004 12:31


Like any other bc function, you can't trust the last couple of digits, but everything else seems to check out.  If you want to use this for anything important, you may want to verify this against other sources of pi before use.  This function calculates 100 decimal places of pi in 329 iterations -- not exactly fast (each iteration calls the factorial function, from below, twice), so I try to avoid calling it more than once.



<?

//arbitrary precision pi approximator

//author tom boothby

//free for any use



function bcpi() {

    $r=2;

    $i=0;

    $or=0;



    while(bccomp($or,$r)) {

        $i++;

        $or=$r;

        $r = bcadd($r,bcdiv(bcmul(bcpow(bcfact($i),2),

                        bcpow(2,$i+1)),bcfact(2*$i+1)));

    }



    return $r;

}



?>

stonehew et g m a i l dut com
24-Nov-2004 02:20


I hacked these taylor expansions up to make diagrams for some physics homework.  I don't think you'll be wanting to do any real science with PHP... but what the hell, why not?  I plan to implement either a spigot algorithm or something similar to generate pi in the near future.



<?

// arbitrary precision sin and cosine functions

// author tom boothby

// free for any use



function bcfact($n) {

    $r = $n--;

    while($n>1) $r=bcmul($r,$n--);

    return $r;

}



function bcsin($a) {

    $or= $a;

    $r = bcsub($a,bcdiv(bcpow($a,3),6));

    $i = 2;

    while(bccomp($or,$r)) {

        $or=$r;

        switch($i%2) {

          case 0:  $r = bcadd($r,bcdiv(bcpow($a,$i*2+1),bcfact($i*2+1))); break;

          default: $r = bcsub($r,bcdiv(bcpow($a,$i*2+1),bcfact($i*2+1))); break;

        }

        $i++;

    }

    return $r;

}



function bccos($a) {

    $or= $a;

    $r = bcsub(1,bcdiv(bcpow($a,2),2));

    $i = 2;

    while(bccomp($or,$r)) {

        $or=$r;

        switch($i%2) {

          case 0:  $r = bcadd($r,bcdiv(bcpow($a,$i*2),bcfact($i*2))); break;

          default: $r = bcsub($r,bcdiv(bcpow($a,$i*2),bcfact($i*2))); break;

        }

        $i++;

    }

    return $r;

}



?>

Diabolos at GMail dot com
28-Oct-2004 02:42


Here's a function to compute the natural exponential function in arbitrary precision using the basic bcMath arithmetic operations.



EXAMPLE:

To compute the exponential function of 1.7 to 36 decimals:



$y = bcExp("1.7", 36);



The result:

4.331733759839529271053448625299468628



would be returned in variable $y



NOTE:

In practice, the last couple of digits may be inaccurate due to small rounding errors.  If you require a specific degree of precision, always compute 3-4 decimals beyond the required precision.



The program code for the natural exponential function is:

******************************************



  Function bcExp($xArg, $NumDecimals)



{

   $x = Trim($xArg);



   $PrevSum  = $x - 1;

   $CurrTerm = 1;

   $CurrSum  = bcAdd("1", $x, $NumDecimals);

   $n        = 1;



   While (bcComp($CurrSum, $PrevSum, $NumDecimals))



  {

   $PrevSum  = $CurrSum;

   $CurrTerm = bcDiv(bcMul($CurrTerm, $x, $NumDecimals), $n + 1, $NumDecimals);

   $CurrSum  = bcAdd($CurrSum, $CurrTerm, $NumDecimals);



   $n++;

  }



   Return $CurrSum;

}

robert at scabserver dot com
03-Jun-2004 12:58


I spent some time looking for how to generate a large random number, in the end I've settled for reading directly from /dev/urandom



I know this is a *nix only solution, but I figured that it might come in handy to someone else.



The value $size is the size in bits, it could be simplified greatly if you want the size in bytes, but bits was more helpful to what I needed.



<?php

function bcrand($size)

{

    $filename = "/dev/urandom";

    $handle = fopen($filename, "r");

    $bin_urand = fread($handle, ceil($size/8.0));

    fclose($handle);

    $mask = (($size % 8 < 5) ? '0' : '') . dechex(bindec(str_repeat('1', $size % 8))) . str_repeat('FF', floor($size/8));

    $binmask = pack("H*", $mask);

    $binrand = $binmask & $bin_urand;

    $hexnumber = unpack("H*", $binrand);

    $hexnumber = $hexnumber[''];

    $numlength = strlen($hexnumber);

    $decnumber = 0;

    for($x = 1; $x <= $numlength; $x++)

    {

        $place = $numlength - $x;

        $operand = hexdec(substr($hexnumber,$place,1));

        $exponent = bcpow(16,$x-1);

        $decValue = bcmul($operand, $exponent);

        $decnumber = bcadd($decValue, $decnumber);

    }

    return $decnumber;

}

?>

pulstar at mail dot com
15-Apr-2003 08:12


A little comment for the simplified example above: you can do base converting without BCMath functions using only math operators, but you will not able to manage very large values or work with strings to compress or scramble data. If you have BCMath installed in your system it worth use it for this.

oliver at summertime dot net
01-Mar-2003 01:12


A simplier Version of the Script above:



function dec2base($dec, $digits) {

 $value = "";

 $base  = strlen($digits);

 while($dec>$base-1) {

  $rest = $dec % $base;

  $dec  = $dec / $base;

  $value = $digits[$rest].$value;

 }

 $value = $digits[intval($dec)].$value;

 return (string) $value;

}



function base2dec($value, $digits) {

 $value = strtoupper($value);

 $base  = strlen($digits);

 $size  = strlen($value);

 $dec   = '0';

 for ($loop = 0; $loop<$size; $loop++) {

  $element = strpos($digits,$value[$loop]);

  $power   = pow($base,$size-$loop-1);

  $dec    += $element * $power;

 }

 return (string) $dec;

}



$digits = "ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789";

echo dec2base('1000', $digits);

pulstar at mail dot com
20-Sep-2002 10:23


A found a little fix to do in my base2dec() function:

The line "if($base<37) $value=strtolower($value);" should be removed if you want to specify another digits for your base conversions. Change it this way:



if(!$digits) {

$digits=digits($base);

if($base<37) {

$value=strtolower($value);

}

}



Another example using these functions is to generate a key for a session, to name temporary files or something else:



srand((double) microtime()*1000000);

$id=uniqid(rand(10,999));

$mykey=dec2base(base2dec($id,16),64);



$mykey is a base64 value, which is a good key for passing thru an URL and also is shorter than a MD5 string (it will be allways 11 chars long). If you need something more secure, just scramble the 64 digits in the digits() function.



Well, I hope you enjoy it.



Regards,

Edemilson Lima

pulstar at mail dot com
19-Sep-2002 11:27


A good use for BCMath functions:

The functions below can convert a number in any base (from 2 to 256) to its decimal value and vice-versa.



// convert a decimal value to any other base value

function dec2base($dec,$base,$digits=FALSE) {

    if($base<2 or $base>256) die("Invalid Base: ".$base);

    bcscale(0);

    $value="";

    if(!$digits) $digits=digits($base);

    while($dec>$base-1) {

        $rest=bcmod($dec,$base);

        $dec=bcdiv($dec,$base);

        $value=$digits[$rest].$value;

    }

    $value=$digits[intval($dec)].$value;

    return (string) $value;

}



// convert another base value to its decimal value

function base2dec($value,$base,$digits=FALSE) {

    if($base<2 or $base>256) die("Invalid Base: ".$base);

    bcscale(0);

    if($base<37) $value=strtolower($value);

    if(!$digits) $digits=digits($base);

    $size=strlen($value);

    $dec="0";

    for($loop=0;$loop<$size;$loop++) {

        $element=strpos($digits,$value[$loop]);

        $power=bcpow($base,$size-$loop-1);

        $dec=bcadd($dec,bcmul($element,$power));

    }

    return (string) $dec;

}



function digits($base) {

    if($base>64) {

        $digits="";

        for($loop=0;$loop<256;$loop++) {

            $digits.=chr($loop);

        }

    } else {

        $digits ="0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

        $digits.="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-_";

    }

    $digits=substr($digits,0,$base);

    return (string) $digits;

}



The purpose of digits() function above is to supply the characters that will be used as digits for the base you want. NOTE: You can use any characters for that when you convert to another base, but when you convert again to the decimal base, you need to use the same characters or you will get another unexpected result.

benjcarson at digitaljunkies dot ca
07-Jul-2002 08:00


In addition to my last note, here are  a quick pair of functions to convert exponential notation values into bcmath-style number strings:



// exp2int converts numbers in the

// form "1.5e4" into strings

function exp2int($exp) {

  list($mantissa, $exponent) = spliti("e", $exp);

  list($int, $dec) = split("\.", $mantissa);

  bcscale ($dec);

  return bcmul($mantissa, bcpow("10", $exponent));

}



// float2exp converts floats into exponential notation

function float2exp($num) {



  if (0 == $num) { return "0E1";}

  list($int, $dec) = split("\.", $num);



  // Extract sign

  if ($int[0] == "+" || $int[0] == "-") {

    $sign = substr($int, 0,1);

    $int = substr($int, 1);

  }



  if (strlen($int) <= 1) {   // abs($num) is less than 1

    $i=0;

    for ($i=0; $dec[$i]=='0' && $i < strlen($dec); $i++);

      $exp = -$i-1;       

      $mantissa = substr($dec,$i,1).".".substr($dec,$i+1);                              

    } else { // abs($num) is greater than 1

    $i=0;

    for ($i=0; $int[$i]=='0' && $i < strlen($int); $i++);

      $exp = strlen($int)-1 - $i;

      $mantissa = substr($int,$i,1).".".substr($int,$i+1).$dec;

    }



  return ($sign . $mantissa . "E" . $exp);

}

benjcarson at digitaljunkies ca
07-Jul-2002 07:17


Note that bcmath doesn't seem to handle numbers in exponential notation (i.e. "1e4"), although PHP considers such a value a number.



example:



$exp1 = "1E5";

$exp2 = "2E4";

$ans1 = bcadd($exp1, $exp2, 3);

$ans2 = $exp1 + exp2;

echo("bcadd: $exp1 + $exp2 = $ans1");

echo("php: $exp1 + $exp2 = $ans2");



// Output:

bcadd: 1E5 + 2E4 = 0.000

php: 1E5 + 2E4 = 120000



Just a gotcha if you're using passing PHP numbers into bcmath functions...

add a note

bcadd

BC Math

Last updated: Fri, 27 Jun 2008

BC Math Functions

Table of Contents