What is the Erf function in Golang?
The Erf function
The Go programming language uses the Erf function to find the error function of a certain decimal number.
To use this function, you must import the math package in your file and access the Erf function within it using the . notation (math.Erf). Here, Erf is the actual function, while math is the Go package that stores the definition of this function.
The error function
The error function (known as the Gauss error function) is a sigmoid function used in statistics, partial differential equations to describe diffusion, and probability. It is represented using erf(x) and defined by the following formula:
Function definition
The definition of the Erf function inside the math package is:
Parameters
The Erf function takes a single argument of type float64. This argument represents the decimal number whose error function you want to find.
Return value
The Erf function returns a single value of type float64. This value represents the error function for a particular input argument.
Following are two types of return values only used by the function under certain circumstances:
-
NAN: Not a number or NAN is returned in all cases where the input argument is of undefined value.
-
(±)1: The
Erffunction returns +1 if the input argument has a value equalling positive infinity and -1 for negative infinity.
Giving an empty argument or an argument that is not a numeric value results in an error.
Examples
Following is a simple example where we find out the error function of a positive decimal value:
package mainimport ("fmt""math")func main() {x := 0.8y := math.Erf(x)fmt.Print("The error function of ", x, "is ", y)}
The following example shows how the Erf function deals with an argument with an infinite value:
package mainimport ("fmt""math")func main() {zero := 0.0y := math.Erf(-1/zero)fmt.Print("The error function of -Inf is ", y)}
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