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authorBruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org>2006-04-29 16:15:46 +0000
committerBruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org>2006-04-29 16:15:46 +0000
commit9c10119cfaf80c032f27f3e1cfcf6c97ee79599d (patch)
treee8bbb41edd5b4d8ca6bf2b224b2605c5471ecd47 /doc/gcd.texi
parentd3d0152e409b77847917478f21df9d63d042f862 (diff)
downloadgnulib-9c10119cfaf80c032f27f3e1cfcf6c97ee79599d.tar.gz
Document the gcd module.
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+@node gcd
+@section gcd
+@findex gcd
+
+The @code{gcd} function returns the greatest common divisor of two numbers
+@code{a > 0} and @code{b > 0}. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
+that the arguments are non-zero.
+
+If you need a gcd function for an integer type larger than
+@samp{unsigned long}, you can include the @file{gcd.c} implementation file
+with parametrization. The parameters are:
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item WORD_T
+Define this to the unsigned integer type that you need this function for.
+
+@item GCD
+Define this to the name of the function to be created.
+@end itemize
+
+The created function has the prototype
+@smallexample
+WORD_T GCD (WORD_T a, WORD_T b);
+@end smallexample
+
+If you need the least common multiple of two numbers, it can be computed
+like this: @code{lcm(a,b) = (a / gcd(a,b)) * b} or
+@code{lcm(a,b) = a * (b / gcd(a,b))}.
+Avoid the formula @code{lcm(a,b) = (a * b) / gcd(a,b)} because - although
+mathematically correct - it can yield a wrong result, due to integer overflow.
+
+In some applications it is useful to have a function taking the gcd of two
+signed numbers. In this case, the gcd function result is usually normalized
+to be non-negative (so that two gcd results can be compared in magnitude
+or compared against 1, etc.). Note that in this case the prototype of the
+function has to be
+@smallexample
+unsigned long gcd (long a, long b);
+@end smallexample
+and not
+@smallexample
+long gcd (long a, long b);
+@end smallexample
+because @code{gcd(LONG_MIN,LONG_MIN) = -LONG_MIN = LONG_MAX + 1} does not
+fit into a signed @samp{long}.