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Formula Syntax

Formula Syntax
Formula editor is used in the following cases:

Setting Column Formula

MagicPlot uses standard IEEE 754 double precision floating-point arithmetic. Double precision
floating point takes 8 bytes per number and provides a relative precision of about 16 decimal digits
and magnitude range from about 10-308 to about 10+308.

Syntax Highlighting
MagicPlot formula editor highlights expression syntax. It also marks matching brackets:

General Rules
Case Sensitivity
MagicPlot formula translator is generally case sensitive, i.e. you can write sin but not Sin.
Note that x and X are different variables. You can use this feature when naming Custom Equation
Fit Curve parameters.

Entering Numbers

You can use dot (.) or comma (,) as decimal separator, and separate function arguments with a
semicolon (;) in the following cases:
Cell editing in Tables
Entering value in any numeric field
Using MagicPlot Calculator

You can use dot (.) only as decimal separator, and separate function arguments with a comma (,)
or a semicolon (;), in:

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Setting Column Formula

You can use e or E for scientific notation: 1.45e-3 or 1.45E-3.

Using Spaces and Line Breaks

Functions
You can see a list of all available functions and their descriptions in Functions tab in Set Column
Formula window and in Help on Functions window which can be opened from menu in calculator
window.
MagicPlot uses functions of Java programming language library StrictMath to evaluate sin, cos,
exp, etc. These functions are available from the well-known network library netlib as a Freely
Distributable Math Library, fdlibm package. The same library is widely used in many scientific
computing applications.

Trigonometric Functions
MagicPlot supports all standard trigonometric functions (sin, cos, etc.). All angles are always
measured in radians for clarity.
You can use the following functions to convert angles units:

deg(a) converts angles input in radians to an equivalent measure in degrees.

Examples

sin(rad(90))
deg(asin(1))

Constants
The predefined constants are:

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Formula Syntax

pi, Pi, PI = 3.1416 value (the ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter).
e e = 2.7183 value (the base of the natural logarithms). Note: expression e^a is evaluated as
exp(a).
nan, NaN, NAN Not-a-Number value.
inf, Inf, infinity, Infinity positive infinity value which may be used in some calculations.
Note: write -inf for negative infinity.
eps machine epsilon, gives an upper bound of the relative error due to rounding in floating
point arithmetic. Note: eps = ulp(1) = 2^(-52) = 2,2204E-16. (52 is the number of bits
used to store fractional part of a number.)

Boolean Logic
MagicPlot can interpret boolean logic expressions. Zero and negative values (<=0) are interpreted as
false and positive values (>0) are interpreted as true similarly to C programming language. You
can use simple logical operators which are described below. Use 1 as true and 0 as false.

'if' Function
The basic logical function is if(condition, a, b). If condition argument is true (greater than
0) it returns the second argument (a), else returns the third argument (b).

Examples

if(col(A) >= 0, col(A), -col(A)) evaluates absolute value of column A (you can use
abs(col(A)) for that, of course).
if(col(B) >= 0, col(B), NaN) returns only positive values from column B. Negative values
are replaced with NaN value (empty cell). You can use this expression to filter negative values if you
do not want to use them in future calculations. Note that Not-a-Number returned at row # warning
can be shown for such expression.
if(col(A) > 0 & col(B) > 0, max(col(A), col(B)), NaN)
a * if(x >= 0, x, -x) custom fit function example for abs.

Equality Checking
You have to be careful if you need to check equality of two values. Due to inaccuracy of computer
floating-point calculations the result of evaluation is always approximate. For example, result of
sqrt(3)^2 is number 2.9999999999999996, not exactly 3. The expression sqrt(3)^2 == 3 is
false (it returns 0). Keep in mind that for convenience MagicPlot rounds numbers when showing on
the screen, so this value will be shown as 3 in table if the number of shown fractional digits in
MagicPlot preferences is not big enough.
Generally, if you want to check equality of two values you need to use some equality threshold for
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relative difference. That is, you should compare the modulus of relative difference of two values a and
b with threshold t: if(abs((a-b)/a) < t, , ).

Examples

sqrt(3)^2 - 3 results something about -4,4409E-16

Operators
Operator Description Operator Description
+
addition
==
equal to
subtraction !=
not equal to
*
multiplication <
less than
/
division
>
greater than
^
power
<=
less than or equal to
|
or
>=
greater than or equal to
&
and

Operations Priority
Operators with lower precedence value are evaluated earlier. You can use brackets to change
calculation sequence.
Expression is evaluated left-to-right, excluding repeated exponentiation operator ^. The ^ operator is
right-associative like in Fortran language (evaluated right-to-left; note that in general case a^(b^c)
(a^b)^c). Hence a^b^c is evaluated as a^(b^c).
The reason for exponentiation being right-associative is that a repeated left-associative
exponentiation operation would be less useful. Multiple appearances could (and would) be rewritten
with multiplication: (a^b)^c = a^(b*c).
Operations
Precedence Associativity
foo() (function call) 1

^
2
Right-to-left
- (unary minus)
3

*, /
4
Left-to-right
+, 5
Left-to-right
<, >, <=, >=
6
Left-to-right
==, !=
7
Left-to-right
&
8
Left-to-right
|
9
Left-to-right
= (assignment)
10
Left-to-right
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Formula Syntax

Examples

1 + 2 * 3 returns 7.
(1 + 2) * 3 returns 9.
2*-3 returns -6.
-3^2 is equal to -(3^2), because ^ priority is higher than that of unary minus. The result is -9.
(-3)^2 returns 9.
2^2^3 is equal to 2^(2^3), because ^ is right-associative operator. The result is 256.

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