R: Complex Numbers and Basic Functionality

complex {base} | R Documentation

## Complex Numbers and Basic Functionality

### Description

Basic functions which support complex arithmetic in R, in addition to the arithmetic operators `+`, `-`, `*`, `/`, and `^`.

### Usage

    complex(length.out = 0, real = numeric(), imaginary = numeric(),
            modulus = 1, argument = 0)
    as.complex(x, ...)
    is.complex(x)

    Re(z)
    Im(z)
    Mod(z)
    Arg(z)
    Conj(z)

### Arguments

`length.out` | numeric. Desired length of the output vector, inputs being recycled as needed.
`real` | numeric vector.
`imaginary` | numeric vector.
`modulus` | numeric vector.
`argument` | numeric vector.
`x` | an object, probably of mode `complex`.
`z` | an object of mode `complex`, or one of a class for which a methods has been defined.
`...` | further arguments passed to or from other methods.

### Details

Complex vectors can be created with `complex`. The vector can be specified either by giving its length, its real and imaginary parts, or modulus and argument. (Giving just the length generates a vector of complex zeroes.)

`as.complex` attempts to coerce its argument to be of complex type: like `as.vector` it strips attributes including names. Up to R versions 3.2.x, all forms of `NA` and `NaN` were coerced to a complex `NA`, i.e., the `NA_complex_` constant, for which both the real and imaginary parts are `NA`. Since R 3.3.0, typically only objects which are `NA` in parts are coerced to complex `NA`, but others with `NaN` parts, are not. As a consequence, complex arithmetic where only `NaN`'s (but no `NA`'s) are involved typically will not give complex `NA` but complex numbers with real or imaginary parts of `NaN`.

Note that `is.complex` and `is.numeric` are never both `TRUE`.

The functions `Re`, `Im`, `Mod`, `Arg` and `Conj` have their usual interpretation as returning the real part, imaginary part, modulus, argument and complex conjugate for complex values. The modulus and argument are also called the polar coordinates. If z = x + i y with real x and y, for r = Mod(z) = √(x^2 + y^2), and φ = Arg(z), x = r*cos(φ) and y = r*sin(φ). They are all internal generic primitive functions: methods can be defined for them individually or via the `Complex` group generic.

In addition to the arithmetic operators (see Arithmetic) `+`, `-`, `*`, `/`, and `^`, the elementary trigonometric, logarithmic, exponential, square root and hyperbolic functions are implemented for complex values.

Matrix multiplications (`%*%`, `crossprod`, `tcrossprod`) are also defined for complex matrices (`matrix`), and so are `solve`, `eigen` or `svd`.

Internally, complex numbers are stored as a pair of double precision numbers, either or both of which can be `NaN` (including `NA`, see `NA_complex_` and above) or plus or minus infinity.

### S4 methods

`as.complex` is primitive and can have S4 methods set.

`Re`, `Im`, `Mod`, `Arg` and `Conj` constitute the S4 group generic `Complex` and so S4 methods can be set for them individually or via the group generic.

### Note

Operations and functions involving complex `NaN` mostly rely on the C library's handling of double complex arithmetic, which typically returns `complex(re=NaN, im=NaN)` (but we have not seen a guarantee for that). For `+` and `-`, R's own handling works strictly “coordinate wise”.

Operations involving complex `NA`, i.e., `NA_complex_`, return `NA_complex_`.

### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

### See Also

`Arithmetic`; `polyroot` finds all n complex roots of a polynomial of degree n.

### Examples

    require(graphics)

    0i ^ (-3:3)

    matrix(1i^ (-6:5), nrow = 4) #- all columns are the same
    0 ^ 1i # a complex NaN

    ## create a complex normal vector
    z <- complex(real = stats::rnorm(100), imaginary = stats::rnorm(100))
    ## or also (less efficiently):
    z2 <- 1:2 + 1i*(8:9)

    ## The Arg(.) is an angle:
    zz <- (rep(1:4, len = 9) + 1i*(9:1))/10
    zz.shift <- complex(modulus = Mod(zz), argument = Arg(zz) + pi)
    plot(zz, xlim = c(-1,1), ylim = c(-1,1), col = "red", asp = 1,
         main = expression(paste("Rotation by "," ", pi == 180^o)))
    abline(h = 0, v = 0, col = "blue", lty = 3)
    points(zz.shift, col = "orange")

    showC <- function(z) noquote(sprintf("(R = %g, I = %g)", Re(z), Im(z)))

    ## The exact result of this *depends* on the platform, compiler, math-library:
    (NpNA <- NaN + NA_complex_) ; str(NpNA) # *behaves* as 'cplx NA' ..
    stopifnot(is.na(NpNA), is.na(NA_complex_), is.na(Re(NA_complex_)), is.na(Im(NA_complex_)))
    showC(NpNA)# but not always is {shows  '(R = NaN, I = NA)' on some platforms}
    ## and this is not TRUE everywhere:
    identical(NpNA, NA_complex_)
    showC(NA_complex_) # always == (R = NA, I = NA)

[Package base version 4.0.5 Index]