Edit

Share via


<complex>

Defines the container class template complex and its supporting templates.

Requirements

Header: <complex>

Namespace: std

Remarks

A complex number is an ordered pair of real numbers. In purely geometrical terms, the complex plane is the real, two-dimensional plane. The special qualities of the complex plane that distinguish it from the real plane are due to its having an additional algebraic structure. This algebraic structure has two fundamental operations:

  • Addition, defined as (a, b) + (c, d) = (a + c, b + d)

  • Multiplication, defined as (a, b) * (c, d) = (ac - bd, ad + bc)

The set of complex numbers with the operations of complex addition and complex multiplication are a field in the standard algebraic sense:

  • The operations of addition and multiplication are commutative and associative and multiplication distributes over addition exactly as it does with real addition and multiplication on the field of real numbers.

  • The complex number (0, 0) is the additive identity and (1, 0) is the multiplicative identity.

  • The additive inverse for a complex number (a, b) is (-a, -b), and the multiplicative inverse for all such complex numbers except (0, 0) is

    (a/(a2 + b2), -b/(a2 + b2))

By representing a complex number z = (a, b) in the form z = a + bi, where i2 = -1, the rules for the algebra of the set of real numbers can be applied to the set of complex numbers and to their components. For example:

(1 + 2i) * (2 + 3i) = 1 * (2 + 3i) + 2i * (2 + 3i) = (2 + 3i) + (4i + 6i2) = (2 - 6) + (3 + 4)i = -4 + 7i

The system of complex numbers is a field, but it's not an ordered field. There's no ordering of the complex numbers as there is for the field of real numbers and its subsets, so inequalities can't be applied to complex numbers as they are to real numbers.

There are three common forms of representing a complex number z:

  • Cartesian: z = a + bi

  • Polar: z = r (cos p + i sin p)

  • Exponential: z = r * eip

The terms used in these standard representations of a complex number are referred to as follows:

  • The real Cartesian component or real part a.

  • The imaginary Cartesian component or imaginary part b.

  • The modulus or absolute value of a complex number r.

  • The argument or phase angle p in radians.

Unless otherwise specified, functions that can return multiple values are required to return a principal value for their arguments greater than -π and less than or equal to +π to keep them single valued. All angles must be expressed in radians, where there are 2π radians (360 degrees) in a circle.

Members

Functions

Name Description
abs Calculates the modulus of a complex number.
acos
acosh
arg Extracts the argument from a complex number.
asin
asinh
atan
atanh
conj Returns the complex conjugate of a complex number.
cos Returns the cosine of a complex number.
cosh Returns the hyperbolic cosine of a complex number.
exp Returns the exponential function of a complex number.
imag Extracts the imaginary component of a complex number.
log Returns the natural logarithm of a complex number.
log10 Returns the base 10 logarithm of a complex number.
norm Extracts the norm of a complex number.
polar Returns the complex number, which corresponds to a specified modulus and argument, in Cartesian form.
pow Evaluates the complex number obtained by raising a base that is a complex number to the power of another complex number.
proj
real Extracts the real component of a complex number.
sin Returns the sine of a complex number.
sinh Returns the hyperbolic sine of a complex number.
sqrt Returns the square root of a complex number.
tan Returns the tangent of a complex number.
tanh Returns the hyperbolic tangent of a complex number.

Operators

Name Description
operator!= Tests for inequality between two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator* Multiplies two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator+ Adds two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator- Subtracts two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator/ Divides two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator<< A template function that inserts a complex number into the output stream.
operator== Tests for equality between two complex numbers, one or both of which may belong to the subset of the type for the real and imaginary parts.
operator>> A template function that extracts a complex value from the input stream.

Classes

Name Description
complex<double> The explicitly specialized class template describes an object that stores an ordered pair of objects, both of type double, where the first represents the real part of a complex number and the second represents the imaginary part.
complex<float> The explicitly specialized class template describes an object that stores an ordered pair of objects, both of type float, where the first represents the real part of a complex number and the second represents the imaginary part.
complex<long double> The explicitly specialized class template describes an object that stores an ordered pair of objects, both of type long double, where the first represents the real part of a complex number and the second represents the imaginary part.
complex The class template describes an object used to represent the complex number system and perform complex arithmetic operations.

Literals

The <complex> header defines the following user-defined literals. The literals create a complex number with a real part of zero and an imaginary part that has the value of the input parameter.

Declaration Description
constexpr complex<long double> operator""il(long double d)
constexpr complex<long double> operator""il(unsigned long long d)
Returns: complex<long double>{0.0L, static_cast<long double>(d)}
constexpr complex<double> operator""i(long double d)
constexpr complex<double> operator""i(unsigned long long d)
Returns: complex<double>{0.0, static_cast<double>(d)}.
constexpr complex<float> operator""if(long double d)
constexpr complex<float> operator""if(unsigned long long d)
Returns: complex<float>{0.0f, static_cast<float>(d)}.

See also

Header files reference
Thread safety in the C++ standard library