std::beta, std::betaf, std::betal

Header: <cmath>

1-3) Computes the Beta function of x and y.The library provides overloads of std::beta for all cv-unqualified floating-point types as the type of the parameters x and y.(since C++23)

# Declarations

float beta ( float x, float y );
double beta ( double x, double y );
long double beta ( long double x, long double y );

(since C++17) (until C++23)

/* floating-point-type */ beta( /* floating-point-type */ x,
/* floating-point-type */ y );

(since C++23)

float betaf( float x, float y );

(since C++17)

long double betal( long double x, long double y );

(since C++17)

Additional overloads
template< class Arithmetic1, class Arithmetic2 >
/* common-floating-point-type */ beta( Arithmetic1 x, Arithmetic2 y );

(since C++17)

# Parameters

# Notes

Implementations that do not support C++17, but support ISO 29124:2010, provide this function if STDCPP_MATH_SPEC_FUNCS is defined by the implementation to a value at least 201003L and if the user defines STDCPP_WANT_MATH_SPEC_FUNCS before including any standard library headers.

Implementations that do not support ISO 29124:2010 but support TR 19768:2007 (TR1), provide this function in the header tr1/cmath and namespace std::tr1.

An implementation of this function is also available in boost.math.

std::beta(x, y) equals std::beta(y, x).

The additional overloads are not required to be provided exactly as (A). They only need to be sufficient to ensure that for their first argument num1 and second argument num2:

If num1 and num2 have arithmetic types, then std::beta(num1, num2) has the same effect as std::beta(static_cast</* common-floating-point-type />(num1),static_cast</ common-floating-point-type />(num2)), where / common-floating-point-type */ is the floating-point type with the greatest floating-point conversion rank and greatest floating-point conversion subrank between the types of num1 and num2, arguments of integer type are considered to have the same floating-point conversion rank as double.

If no such floating-point type with the greatest rank and subrank exists, then overload resolution does not result in a usable candidate from the overloads provided.

# Example

#include <cassert>
#include <cmath>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <numbers>
#include <string>
 
long binom_via_beta(int n, int k)
{
    return std::lround(1 / ((n + 1) * std::beta(n - k + 1, k + 1)));
}
 
long binom_via_gamma(int n, int k)
{
    return std::lround(std::tgamma(n + 1) /
                      (std::tgamma(n - k + 1) * 
                       std::tgamma(k + 1)));
}
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "Pascal's triangle:\n";
    for (int n = 1; n < 10; ++n)
    {
        std::cout << std::string(20 - n * 2, ' ');
        for (int k = 1; k < n; ++k)
        {
            std::cout << std::setw(3) << binom_via_beta(n, k) << ' ';
            assert(binom_via_beta(n, k) == binom_via_gamma(n, k));
        }
        std::cout << '\n';
    }
 
    // A spot-check
    const long double p = 0.123; // a random value in [0, 1]
    const long double q = 1 - p;
    const long double π = std::numbers::pi_v<long double>;
    std::cout << "\n\n" << std::setprecision(19)
              << "β(p,1-p)   = " << std::beta(p, q) << '\n'
              << "π/sin(π*p) = " << π / std::sin(π * p) << '\n';
}

# See also