rational

A C++ rational (fraction) template class

Include rational.h to be able to do fraction calculations. By simply including rational.h and specifying the storage type (any integer variant) you can create and use a fractional data type. For example, Rational<long> foo(3, 4) would create a fraction named foo with a value of 3/4, and store the fraction using the long data type.

Simple to use, fast, and modifiable for your needs, because its all in the one header file rational.h at your access. It includes all basic mathematical operations as well as comparison operators, and is very flexible. If you would like to see a feature implemented, just ask here.

The storage type should represent all integers within some (possibly infinite) interval including 0 and 1. For example, the native signed or unsigned int and long types, or arbitrary-precision integers, may be used. Beyond ordinary integers, you should also be able to use any other Euclidean domain, perhaps not even an ordered ring, but support for such types is experimental and has not been thoroughly tested. In fact, you should be able to use any integral domain, but you may need to apply a more sophisticated GCD algorithm; you can fall back to GCD_null if overflow is not a concern in practice. Finally, using non-integral domains is very likely to fail.

Features

• exchangeable GCD algorithms [GCD_euclid_fast (default), GCD_euclidand GCD_stein, choose as second template parameter, i. e. Rational<long, GCD_stein> foo(3, 4) for Stein]
• optional signed overflow/unsigned wrap checking by throwing an std::domain_error exception (i.e. Rational<storage_type, GCD_algo, Commons::Math::ENABLE_OVERFLOW_CHECK>, default is no checking: Commons::Math::NO_OVERFLOW_CHECK)
• optimized for signed and unsigned types
• additional operators:
  • mod to split inproper fractions in integer and fraction part
  • abs to get the absolute value
  • % (modulo) for rational modulo
  • increment (++x & x++) and decrement (--x & x--)
  • unary plusand minus
• Construction of inproper (mixed) fractions, i.e. Rational<long> foo(2, 3, 4)for 2 3/4 resp. 2.75
• Construction of approximate fractions, i.e. Rational<long> foo(3.14159265358979323846)for π resp. 245850922/78256779 (approximation is dependent on compiler and chosen storage type)

• Support for

  • the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library (include gmp_rational.h)
  • CLN - Class Library for Numbers (include cln_rational.h)

  as underlying storage type

• Expression templates for domain specific programming (include expr_rational.h)
• Construction of fractions from expression strings (i.e. Rational<long> expr("(11/2) * +(4.25+3.75)"))
• Construction of fractions from continued fractions (from container of integer types)
• Extraction of continued fractions sequences from a fraction
• Construction of fractions from repeating decimals (i.e. 0.16666... => 1/6)

Notes for custom number types

rational.h depends on following specialized fields of std::numeric_limits<custom_type>

• std::numeric_limits<custom_type>::is_signed
• std::numeric_limits<custom_type>::is_integer
• std::numeric_limits<custom_type>::is_exact

(gmp_rational.h provides this specializations for GMP versions below 5.1)

How to use

See the test cases for examples on how to use rational.h with C++ built-in types as well as with the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library or the CLN - Class Library for Numbers as underlying storage type.

• The header gmp_rational.h contains specializations especially for the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library as underlying storage type.

  If you use the GMP extensions, you'll need to link your application with -lgmpxx -lgmp

• The header cln_rational.h contains specializations especially for the CLN - Class Library for Numbers as underlying storage type.

  If you use the CLN extensions, you'll need to link your application with -lcln