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BC(1) General Commands Manual BC(1) NAME bc - arbitrary-precision arithmetic language SYNOPSIS bc [ -c ] [ -l ] [ file ... ] DESCRIPTION Bc is an interactive processor for a language that resembles C but pro- vides arithmetic on numbers of arbitrary length with up to 100 digits right of the decimal point. It takes input from any files given, then reads the standard input. The -l argument stands for the name of an arbitrary precision math library. The following syntax for bc programs is like that of C; L means letter a-z, E means expression, S means statement. Lexical comments are enclosed in /* */ newlines end statements Names simple variables: L array elements: L[E] The words ibase, obase, and scale Other operands arbitrarily long numbers with optional sign and decimal point. (E) sqrt(E) length(E) number of significant decimal digits scale(E) number of digits right of decimal point L(E,...,E) Operators + - * / % ^ (% is remainder; ^ is power) ++ -- (prefix and postfix; apply to names) == <= >= != < > = += -= *= /= %= ^= Statements E { S ; ... ; S } if ( E ) S while ( E ) S for ( E ; E ;E) S null statement break quit "text" Function definitions define L ( L , ... , L ){ auto L , ... , L S ; ... ; S return ( E ) } Functions in -l math library s(x) sine c(x) cosine e(x) exponential l(x) log a(x) arctangent j(n,x) Bessel function All function arguments are passed by value. The value of a statement that is an expression is printed unless the main operator is an assignment. Text in quotes, which may include new- lines, is also printed. Either semicolons or newlines may separate statements. Assignment to scale influences the number of digits to be retained on arithmetic operations in the manner of dc(1). Assignments to ibase or obase set the input and output number radix respectively. The same letter may be used as an array, a function, and a simple vari- able simultaneously. All variables are global to the program. Auto- matic variables are pushed down during function calls. In a declara- tion of an array as a function argument or automatic variable empty square brackets must follow the array name. Bc is actually a preprocessor for dc(1), which it invokes automati- cally, unless the -c (compile only) option is present. In this case the dc input is sent to the standard output instead. EXAMPLES Define a function to compute an approximate value of the exponential. Use it to print 10 values. (The exponential function in the library gives better answers.) scale = 20 define e(x){ auto a, b, c, i, s a = 1 b = 1 s = 1 for(i=1; 1==1; i++){ a = a*x b = b*i c = a/b if(c == 0) return(s) s = s+c } } for(i=1; i<=10; i++) e(i) FILES mathematical library SEE ALSO dc(1), hoc(1) BUGS No or operators. A statement must have all three A is interpreted when read, not when executed. BC(1)