# Exact math on rationals and decimals The functions in `httk.core.exactmath` do exact and controlled-precision arithmetic. They are fully usable **without** `FracVector`: `FracVector`'s element-wise methods (`sqrt`, `cos`, `exp`, ...) delegate here, but nothing stops you from calling these functions directly in your own code. Every value is computed with 100% exact integer/rational arithmetic — there is no floating point anywhere in the computation, so results are platform-independent and deterministic by construction. ```python from fractions import Fraction from httk.core import exactmath ``` ## Parsing values exactly `any_to_fraction` converts numbers and strings into exact rationals. Decimal strings are taken at their written value (unlike `float`s, which carry binary rounding): ```python exactmath.any_to_fraction("8.04") # Fraction(201, 25) exactmath.any_to_fraction("1/3") # Fraction(1, 3) ``` A trailing parenthesized uncertainty (the common experimental notation) makes the parser pick the **simplest rational inside the stated interval**: ```python exactmath.any_to_fraction("0.33342(10)") # Fraction(1, 3) exactmath.string_to_val_and_delta("0.33342(10)") # (Fraction(16671, 50000), Fraction(1, 10000)) ``` Here `0.33342 ± 0.00010` brackets `1/3`, so `1/3` is returned. Without an explicit uncertainty, `min_accuracy` (default `1/10000`) plays the same role; pass `min_accuracy=None` to take a value exactly as written — including the exact binary rational of a `float`: ```python exactmath.any_to_fraction(0.1, min_accuracy=None) # Fraction(3602879701896397, 36028797018963968) ``` ## Best rationals and continued fractions `best_rational_in_interval` returns the rational with the smallest denominator in a closed interval — the workhorse behind the uncertainty parsing: ```python exactmath.best_rational_in_interval("3.14", "3.15") # Fraction(22, 7) ``` The continued-fraction helpers round-trip exactly: ```python list(exactmath.get_continued_fraction(355, 113)) # [3, 7, 16] exactmath.fraction_from_continued_fraction([3, 7, 16]) # Fraction(355, 113) ``` ## Controlled-precision transcendentals (Fraction domain) Given `Fraction`/`int`/`str` input (and no `digits=`), the transcendentals return a `Fraction` within `prec` of the true value (default `prec` is very fine; pass a `Fraction` to control it). With `limit=True` (the default) the result's denominator is kept near `1/prec` rather than growing unboundedly: ```python exactmath.sqrt(Fraction(2), prec=Fraction(1, 10**12)) # Fraction(1402795082585, 991925915511) — (value)**2 is within 1e-12 of 2 ``` Exact results are returned when they exist: ```python exactmath.sqrt(Fraction(9, 4)) # Fraction(3, 2) — exact exactmath.integer_sqrt(10**20) # 10000000000 — exact integer sqrt ``` ### Exact square roots as surds (`exact=True`) For an irrational square root, `exact=True` overrides the output-domain rule entirely and returns the value *symbolically* — as a {py:class}`~httk.core.vectors.surdvector.SurdScalar`, an element of the squarefree-radical field, with **no** approximation: ```python import fractions from httk.core import SurdVector root2 = exactmath.sqrt(fractions.Fraction(2), exact=True) assert root2 * root2 == SurdVector.create(2) # squares back to exactly 2 assert exactmath.sqrt(fractions.Fraction(9, 4), exact=True) == SurdVector.create(fractions.Fraction(3, 2)) ``` See {doc}`vectors` ("Exact radicals: `SurdVector`") for the field itself — exact Cartesian crystallographic geometry, exact comparison, and the nested-radical limit. ## ScalarLike and VectorLike inputs The public functions accept `ScalarLike` values (`int`, `float`, `str`, `Fraction`, `Decimal`, `FracScalar`, or `SurdScalar`) and `VectorLike` values (vector backends/views, nested lists or tuples, and optional NumPy arrays). Vectors are mapped elementwise and retain their shape. In Fraction mode the result is a `FracVector`; Decimal mode returns nested tuples of `Decimal` values. Decimal mode is promoted across the entire vector when any leaf is a `Decimal`, or when `digits=` is supplied, with omitted `digits` using the active Decimal context precision. Ordinary Fraction-mode calls on a genuinely irrational `SurdScalar` use its deterministic Fraction hub: the value is approximated at the active Decimal context precision plus three guard digits. Exact symbolic calls preserve the surd and never use this lossy conversion. Floats are embedded as their exact binary `Fraction` value. `exact=True` is available for `sqrt` and degree-mode `cos`, `sin`, `tan`, `asin`, `acos`, `atan`, and `atan2`. Exact trigonometry requires `degrees=True`; cosine and sine values are exact for the complete square-root angle set (multiples of 15° and 36°, with the corresponding sine/tangent values where defined). Exact inverse functions return degree `Fraction`s. An unsupported angle or value raises `ValueError`, rather than silently approximating. Vector exact results are `SurdVector`-compatible and exact `atan2` accepts either two same-shaped vectors or scalar broadcasting. `atan2` follows the usual quadrant convention. `digits`, `rounding`, and `max_refinements` retain their Decimal-mode meanings for vectors. In exact mode they are ignored, including invalid `digits` values. The trigonometric functions accept `degrees=True` to interpret their argument in degrees (`cos`, `sin`, ...) or to return degrees (`asin`, `acos`, `atan`, `atan2`). `atan2` follows the quadrant conventions of {py:func}`math.atan2`: ```python exactmath.atan2(Fraction(1), Fraction(0), degrees=True) # Fraction(90, 1) exactmath.atan2(Fraction(0), Fraction(-1), degrees=True) # Fraction(180, 1) ``` `pi` returns a high-precision rational for π; note that for any requested `prec` coarser than about 1e-13 it returns its precomputed high-precision constant (more precise than asked — use `.limit_denominator()` on the result if you want a small rational such as `355/113`): ```python pi = exactmath.pi() pi.limit_denominator(1000) # Fraction(355, 113) ``` ## Decimal mode The same functions render a correctly-rounded {py:class}`decimal.Decimal` when asked. The type of the result follows a single documented rule: > The result is a `Decimal` iff any numeric input is a `Decimal` **or** `digits=` > is passed; `Fraction`/`int`/`str` inputs otherwise get the exact `Fraction` > behavior above. A `Decimal` input therefore yields a `Decimal`, and `digits=` lets a `Fraction`/`int` caller (or the argument-less `pi`) request one: ```python import decimal from fractions import Fraction # Decimal input -> Decimal result: assert isinstance(exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal(2)), decimal.Decimal) # digits= forces Decimal even from a Fraction input: assert isinstance(exactmath.sqrt(Fraction(2), digits=10), decimal.Decimal) # any Decimal argument promotes the whole result (mixed-argument promotion): assert isinstance(exactmath.atan2(decimal.Decimal(1), Fraction(1)), decimal.Decimal) ``` `digits=` is the number of **significant digits** (default: the active {py:func}`decimal.getcontext` precision, matching stdlib `Decimal`'s own model), and `rounding=` selects `"half_even"` (the default — correctly rounded) or `"down"` (correct truncation toward zero). The rendering uses Ziv's adaptive strategy over the exact rational algorithms, so results are **correctly rounded**: ```python import decimal # sqrt(2) correctly rounded to 30 significant digits, half-even: assert exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal(2), digits=30) == decimal.Decimal( "1.41421356237309504880168872421" ) ``` Exactly-representable results short-circuit through exact arithmetic — including exact boundary cases — so, for example, the special-angle cosines/sines and perfect-square roots come back exactly: ```python import decimal assert exactmath.cos(decimal.Decimal("60"), degrees=True) == decimal.Decimal("0.5") assert exactmath.sin(decimal.Decimal("30"), degrees=True) == decimal.Decimal("0.5") assert exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal("2.25")) == decimal.Decimal("1.5") # perfect square ``` ### Correct rounding vs correct truncation Truncation is deterministic and gets the same adaptive treatment, so it is *correct* truncation of the true value — it has the same boundary hazard as rounding, and the iteration disambiguates both modes identically. Consider a value a hair above the 2-significant-digit boundary at `1.25` (constructed exactly as `(1.25 + 1e-6)**2` so its square root is exactly `1.250001`): ```python import decimal from fractions import Fraction boundary = (Fraction(125, 100) + Fraction(1, 10**6)) ** 2 # exact; sqrt is exactly 1.250001 assert exactmath.sqrt(boundary, digits=2, rounding="half_even") == decimal.Decimal("1.3") assert exactmath.sqrt(boundary, digits=2, rounding="down") == decimal.Decimal("1.2") ``` Half-even rounds the value (just above `1.25`) up to `1.3`; truncation toward zero gives `1.2`. ### Determinism and the context default Results are deterministic: the same call twice is identical, and with `digits=` given explicitly the result is independent of a changed `decimal` context. Only when `digits=` is omitted does the active context precision apply: ```python import decimal from fractions import Fraction # explicit digits= ignores the context precision entirely: saved = decimal.getcontext().prec decimal.getcontext().prec = 5 a = exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal(2), digits=30) decimal.getcontext().prec = 50 b = exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal(2), digits=30) decimal.getcontext().prec = saved assert a == b # without digits=, the context precision drives the significant-digit count: decimal.getcontext().prec = 10 assert exactmath.sqrt(decimal.Decimal(2)) == decimal.Decimal("1.414213562") decimal.getcontext().prec = saved ``` And `pi(digits=n)` gives π as a correctly-rounded `Decimal`: ```python import decimal assert exactmath.pi(digits=50) == decimal.Decimal( "3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751" ) ``` ## Guaranteed termination The adaptive rounding loop provably terminates, with no error path. The table-maker's dilemma only bites when a function value sits *exactly on* a rounding boundary, and boundaries are rational numbers. Classical number theory rules that out for every function here once the exact special cases are handled: by the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem, `exp`, `log`, and radian-mode trigonometry take transcendental values at nonzero rational arguments; by Niven's theorem, degree-mode trigonometry takes rational values only at the tabulated special angles (all handled exactly); square roots of non-perfect-square rationals are irrational (perfect squares are detected exactly); and whether `log(x, base)` is rational is a *finite exact decision* — `log_base(x) = p/q` requires `x**q == base**p`, and `q` is bounded by the largest prime exponent of `base`, so all candidates are checked with exact integer arithmetic: ```python import decimal from httk.core import exactmath # log_4(8) = 3/2 exactly: at one significant digit this is a perfect rounding tie, # resolved by exact arithmetic — half-even rounds to 2, truncation gives 1. assert exactmath.log(decimal.Decimal(8), decimal.Decimal(4), digits=1) == decimal.Decimal("2") assert exactmath.log(decimal.Decimal(8), decimal.Decimal(4), digits=1, rounding="down") == decimal.Decimal("1") # Exact special values survive truncation mode untouched: assert exactmath.asin(decimal.Decimal("0.5"), degrees=True, digits=4, rounding="down") == decimal.Decimal("30") ``` Every remaining value is therefore provably irrational, hence never exactly on a boundary, and the interval refinement always disambiguates in finitely many steps — deterministically, on every platform. ### Bounded time without losing determinism Correct rounding has input-dependent cost: a value constructed to lie extremely close to a rounding boundary (e.g. `sqrt((1.25 + 1e-40)**2)` at two digits) forces many refinements before the interval clears the boundary. When a hard time bound matters more than correctness in that vanishing sliver, pass `max_refinements=k`: at most `k` refinements are performed, and if still ambiguous the *approximation itself* is rounded — the `StrictMath` philosophy of letting a frozen, exact algorithm define the function. The result is then correctly rounded unless the true value lies within `10**-(digits+3+4k)` of a boundary, in which case it is the deterministic rounding of the deterministic approximant — off by at most one unit in the last place, and identical on every platform, every time: ```python import decimal import fractions from httk.core import exactmath boundary = fractions.Fraction(125, 100) + fractions.Fraction(1, 10**40) x = boundary * boundary assert exactmath.sqrt(x, digits=2) == decimal.Decimal("1.3") # unbounded: correct fast = exactmath.sqrt(x, digits=2, max_refinements=0) # bounded: one pass assert fast == exactmath.sqrt(x, digits=2, max_refinements=0) # ... and repeatable ``` The default (`max_refinements=None`) keeps the guaranteed-correct behavior above. ## Using it with FracVector `FracVector`'s element-wise transcendental methods call these functions on each element, so everything above applies vector-wide: ```python from httk.core import FracVector v = FracVector.create([["9/4", "1/4"]]) v.sqrt().to_fractions() # [[Fraction(3, 2), Fraction(1, 2)]] — exact ``` See {doc}`vectors` for the vector library itself and the Vector view family.