I would like to reduce numerical floating-point errors in the following computation.
I have an equation of the following form:
b_3+w_3*(b_2+w_2*(b_1+w_1*(b_0+w_0)))
where the variable w represents some floating-point number in the range [0,1] and b represents a floating-point constant in the range [1,~1000000]. b increases monotonically with subscript (though this may not be important). Naturally, this could be extended to any number of terms:
b_4+w_4*(c_3+w_3*(b_2+w_2*(b_1+w_1*(b_0+w_0))))
This can be defined recursively as:
func(x,n):
if(n==MAX)
return x
else
return func(b[n]+x*w[n],n+1)
func(1,0)
If I were doing an online summation, I could use the Kahan Summation Algorithm (Kahan 1965), or one of several other methods ala Higham 1993 or McNamee 2004, to bound the size of my errors. If I were doing online repeated products, I could use some sort of conversion technique to reduce the problem to summation.
As it is, I'm not sure how to approach this particular problem. Does anyone have thoughts (and citations to go with them)?
Thanks!
Higham 1993. "The accuracy of floating point summation". SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing.
Kahan 1965. "Pracniques: further remarks on reducing truncation errors". CACM. "10.1145/363707.363723".
McNamee 2004. "A comparison of methods for accurate summation". SIGSAM Bull. "10.1145/980175.980177".
Your computation looks similar to a Horner scheme, except that instead of a single variable x, there are different weights w[i] being used at every stage.
There are algorithms for compensated Horner schemes which I think you could adapt for your purposes. See for example theorem 3 and algorithm 2 in the following paper.
P. Langlois, How to Ensure a Faithful Polynomial Evaluation with the Compensated Horner Algorithm. 18th IEEE Symposium on Computer Arithmetic, 25 - 27 June 2007, ARITH '07, pp. 141-149,
http://www.acsel-lab.com/arithmetic/papers/ARITH18/ARITH18_Langlois.pdf
If in algorithm 2 you replace TwoProd (s[i+1], x) with TwoProd (s[i+1], w[i+1]) it seems you would get the desired result, but I have not tried it.
The way you have defined func, it evaluates to the following expression:
For MAX = n+1, func(1,0) ==
n n
\--- -----
1 + > | | w[j]
/--- | |
i=0 j=n-i
So, the way I would resolve the sum would be:
double s = 0.0;
double a = 1.0;
for (int i = 1; i <= MAX; ++i) {
a *= w[MAX-i];
s += a;
}
return 1.0 + s;
Even if we treat the x input value to func as a variable, it only affects the final term. But because of it's range, you should take care in calculating it.
double s = 0.0;
double a = 1.0;
double ax = x;
for (int i = 1; i < MAX; ++i) {
a *= w[MAX-i];
ax *= w[MAX-i];
s += a;
}
ax *= w[0];
s += ax;
return 1.0 + s;
Related
I have a code that tries to solve an integral of a function in a given interval numerically, using the method of Trapezoidal Rule (see the formula in Trapezoid method ), now, for the function sin(x) in the interval [-pi/2.0,pi/2.0], the integral is waited to be zero.
In this case, I take the number of partitions 'n' equal to 4. The problem is that when I have pi with 20 decimal places it is zero, with 14 decimal places it is 8.72e^(-17), then with 11 decimal places, it is zero, with 8 decimal places it is 8.72e^(-17), with 3 decimal places it is zero. I mean, the integral is zero or a number near zero for different approximations of pi, but it doesn't have a clear trend.
I would appreciate your help in understanding why this happens. (I did run it in Dev-C++).
#include <iostream>
#include <math.h>
using namespace std;
#define pi 3.14159265358979323846
//Pi: 3.14159265358979323846
double func(double x){
return sin(x);
}
int main() {
double x0 = -pi/2.0, xf = pi/2.0;
int n = 4;
double delta_x = (xf-x0)/(n*1.0);
double sum = (func(x0)+func(xf))/2.0;
double integral;
for (int k = 1; k<n; k++){
// cout<<"func: "<<func(x0+(k*delta_x))<<" "<<"last sum: "<<sum<<endl;
sum = sum + func(x0+(k*delta_x));
// cout<<"func + last sum= "<<sum<<endl;
}
integral = delta_x*sum;
cout<<"The value for the integral is: "<<integral<<endl;
return 0;
}
OP is integrating y=sin(x) from -a to +a. The various tests use different values of a, all near pi/2.
The approach uses a linear summation of values near -1.0, down to 0 and then up to near 1.0.
This summation is sensitive to calculation error with the last terms as the final math sum is expected to be 0.0. Since the start/end a varies, the error varies.
A more stable result would be had adding the extreme f = sin(f(k)) values first. e.g. sum += sin(f(k=1)), then sum += sin(f(k=3)), then sum += sin(f(k=2)) rather than k=1,2,3. In particular the formation of term x=f(k=3) is likely a bit off from the negative of its x=f(k=1) earlier term, further compounding the issue.
Welcome to the world or numerical analysis.
Problem exists if code used all float or all long double, just different degrees.
Problem is not due to using an inexact value of pi (Exact value is impossible with FP as pi is irrational and all finite FP are rational).
Much is due to the formation of x. Could try the below to form the x symmetrically about 0.0. Compare exactly x generated this way to x the original way.
x = (x0-x1)/2 + ((k - n/2)*delta_x)
Print out the exact values computed for deeper understanding.
printf("x:%a y:%a\n", x0+(k*delta_x), func(x0+(k*delta_x)));
I have a scientific code that uses both sine and cosine of the same argument (I basically need the complex exponential of that argument). I was wondering if it were possible to do this faster than calling sine and cosine functions separately.
Also I only need about 0.1% precision. So is there any way I can find the default trig functions and truncate the power series for speed?
One other thing I have in mind is, is there any way to perform the remainder operation such that the result is always positive? In my own algorithm I used x=fmod(x,2*pi); but then I would need to add 2pi if x is negative (smaller domain means I can use a shorter power series)
EDIT: LUT turned out to be the best approach for this, however I am glad I learned about other approximation techniques. I will also advise using an explicit midpoint approximation. This is what I ended up doing:
const int N = 10000;//about 3e-4 error for 1000//3e-5 for 10 000//3e-6 for 100 000
double *cs = new double[N];
double *sn = new double[N];
for(int i =0;i<N;i++){
double A= (i+0.5)*2*pi/N;
cs[i]=cos(A);
sn[i]=sin(A);
}
The following part approximates (midpoint) sincos(2*pi*(wc2+t[j]*(cotp*t[j]-wc)))
double A=(wc2+t[j]*(cotp*t[j]-wc));
int B =(int)N*(A-floor(A));
re += cs[B]*f[j];
im += sn[B]*f[j];
Another approach could have been using the chebyshev decomposition. You can use the orthogonality property to find the coefficients. Optimized for exponential, it looks like this:
double fastsin(double x){
x=x-floor(x/2/pi)*2*pi-pi;//this line can be improved, both inside this
//function and before you input it into the function
double x2 = x*x;
return (((0.00015025063885163012*x2-
0.008034350857376128)*x2+ 0.1659789684145034)*x2-0.9995812174943602)*x;} //7th order chebyshev approx
If you seek fast evaluation with good (but not high) accuracy with powerseries you should use an expansion in Chebyshev polynomials: tabulate the coefficients (you'll need VERY few for 0.1% accuracy) and evaluate the expansion with the recursion relations for these polynomials (it's really very easy).
References:
Tabulated coefficients: http://www.ams.org/mcom/1980-34-149/S0025-5718-1980-0551302-5/S0025-5718-1980-0551302-5.pdf
Evaluation of chebyshev expansion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebyshev_polynomials
You'll need to (a) get the "reduced" argument in the range -pi/2..+pi/2 and consequently then (b) handle the sign in your results when the argument actually should have been in the "other" half of the full elementary interval -pi..+pi. These aspects should not pose a major problem:
determine (and "remember" as an integer 1 or -1) the sign in the original angle and proceed with the absolute value.
use a modulo function to reduce to the interval 0..2PI
Determine (and "remember" as an integer 1 or -1) whether it is in the "second" half and, if so, subtract pi*3/2, otherwise subtract pi/2. Note: this effectively interchanges sine and cosine (apart from signs); take this into account in the final evaluation.
This completes the step to get an angle in -pi/2..+pi/2
After evaluating sine and cosine with the Cheb-expansions, apply the "flags" of steps 1 and 3 above to get the right signs in the values.
Just create a lookup table. The following will let you lookup the sin and cos of any radian value between -2PI and 2PI.
// LOOK UP TABLE
var LUT_SIN_COS = [];
var N = 14400;
var HALF_N = N >> 1;
var STEP = 4 * Math.PI / N;
var INV_STEP = 1 / STEP;
// BUILD LUT
for(var i=0, r = -2*Math.PI; i < N; i++, r += STEP) {
LUT_SIN_COS[2*i] = Math.sin(r);
LUT_SIN_COS[2*i + 1] = Math.cos(r);
}
You index into the lookup table by:
var index = ((r * INV_STEP) + HALF_N) << 1;
var sin = LUT_SIN_COS[index];
var cos = LUT_SIN_COS[index + 1];
Here's a fiddle that displays the % error you can expect from different sized LUTS http://jsfiddle.net/77h6tvhj/
EDIT Here's an ideone (c++) with a ~benchmark~ vs the float sin and cos. http://ideone.com/SGrFVG For whatever a benchmark on ideone.com is worth the LUT is 5 times faster.
One way to go would be to learn how to implement the CORDIC algorithm. It is not difficult and pretty interesting intelectually. This gives you both the cosine and the sine. Wikipedia gives a MATLAB example that should be easy to adapt in C++.
Note that you can augment speed and reduce precision simply by lowering the parameter n.
About your second question, it has already been asked here (in C). It seems that there is no simple way.
You can also calculate sine using a square root, given the angle and the cosine.
The example below assumes the angle ranges from 0 to 2π:
double c = cos(angle);
double s = sqrt(1.0-c*c);
if(angle>pi)s=-s;
For single-precision floats, Microsoft uses 11-degree polynomial approximation for sine, 10-degree for cosine: XMScalarSinCos.
They also have faster version, XMScalarSinCosEst, that uses lower-degree polynomials.
If you aren’t on Windows, you’ll find same code + coefficients on geometrictools.com under Boost license.
The following post is solved,the problem occurred because of miss interpretation of the formula on http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/random/piecewise_constant_distribution/ The reader is strongly encouraged to consider the page: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/numeric/random/piecewise_constant_distribution
I have the following strange phenomenon which puzzles me!:
I have a piecewise constant probability density given as
using RandomGenType = std::mt19937_64;
RandomGenType gen(51651651651);
using PREC = long double;
std::array<PREC,5> intervals {0.59, 0.7, 0.85, 1, 1.18};
std::array<PREC,4> weights {1.36814, 1.99139, 0.29116, 0.039562};
// integral over the pdf to normalize:
PREC normalization =0;
for(unsigned int i=0;i<4;i++){
normalization += weights[i]*(intervals[i+1]-intervals[i]);
}
std::cout << std::setprecision(30) << "Normalization: " << normalization << std::endl;
// normalize all weights (such that the integral gives 1)!
for(auto & w : weights){
w /= normalization;
}
std::piecewise_constant_distribution<PREC>
distribution (intervals.begin(),intervals.end(),weights.begin());
When I draw n random numbers (radius of sphere in millimeters) from this distribution and compute the mass of the sphere and sum them up like:
unsigned int n = 1000000;
double density = 2400;
double mass = 0;
for(int i=0;i<n;i++){
auto d = 2* distribution(gen) * 1e-3;
mass += d*d*d/3.0*M_PI_2*density;
}
I get mass = 4.3283 kg (see LIVE here)
Doing the EXACT identical thing in Mathematica like:
Gives the assumably correct value of 4.5287 kg. (see mathematica)
Which is not the same, also with different seeds , C++ and Mathematica never match! ? Is that numeric inaccuracy, which I doubt it is...?
Question : What the hack is wrong with the sampling in C++?
Simple Mathematica Code:
pdf[r_] = 2*Piecewise[{{0, r < 0.59}, {1.36814, 0.59 <= r <= 0.7},
{1.99139, Inequality[0.7, Less, r, LessEqual, 0.85]},
{0.29116, Inequality[0.85, Less, r, LessEqual, 1]},
{0.039562, Inequality[1, Less, r, LessEqual, 1.18]},
{0, r > 1.18}}];
pdfr[r_] = pdf[r] / Integrate[pdf[r], {r, 0, 3}];(*normalize*)
Plot[pdf[r], {r, 0.4, 1.3}, Filling -> Axis]
PDFr = ProbabilityDistribution[pdfr[r], {r, 0, 1.18}];
(*if you put 1.18=2 then we dont get 4.52??*)
SeedRandom[100, Method -> "MersenneTwister"]
dataR = RandomVariate[PDFr, 1000000, WorkingPrecision -> MachinePrecision];
Fold[#1 + (2*#2*10^-3)^3 Pi/6 2400 &, 0, dataR]
(*Analytical Solution*)
PDFr = ProbabilityDistribution[pdfr[r], {r, 0, 3}];
1000000 Integrate[ 2400 (2 InverseCDF[PDFr, p] 10^-3)^3 Pi/6, {p, 0, 1}]
Update:
I did some analysis:
Read in the numbers (64bit doubles) generated from Mathematica into
C++ -> calculated the sum and it gives the same as Mathematica
Mass computed by reduction: 4.52528010260687096888432279229
Read in the numbers generated from C++ (64bit double) into Mathematica -> calculated the sum and it gives the same 4.32402
I almost conclude the sampling with std::piecewise_constant_distribution is inaccurate (or as accurate as it gets with 64bit floats) or has a bug... OR there is something wrong with my weights?
Densities are calculated wrongly std::piecewise_constant_distribution in http://coliru.stacked-crooked.com/a/ca171bf600b5148f ===> It seems to be a bug!
Histogramm Plot of CPP Generated values compared to the wanted Distribution:
file = NotebookDirectory[] <> "numbersCpp.bin";
dataCPP = BinaryReadList[file, "Real64"];
Hpdf = HistogramDistribution[dataCPP];
h = DiscretePlot[ PDF[ Hpdf, x], {x, 0.4, 1.2, 0.001},
PlotStyle -> Red];
Show[h, p, PlotRange -> All]
The file is generated here: Number generation CPP
It seems that the formula for the probabilities is wrongly written for std::piecewise_constant_distribution on
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/random/piecewise_constant_distribution/
The summation of the weights is done without the interval lengths multiplied!
The correct formula is:
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/numeric/random/piecewise_constant_distribution
This solves every stupid quirk previously discovered as bug/floating point error and so on!
[The following paragraph was edited for correctness. --Editor's note]
Mathematica may or may not use IEEE 754 floating point numbers. From the Wolfram documentation:
The Wolfram Language has sophisticated built-in automatic numerical precision and accuracy control. But for special-purpose optimization of numerical computations, or for studying numerical analysis, the Wolfram Language also allows detailed control over precision and accuracy.
and
The Wolfram Language handles both integers and real numbers with any number of digits, automatically tagging numerical precision when appropriate. The Wolfram Language internally uses several highly optimized number representations, but nevertheless provides a uniform interface for digit and precision manipulation, while allowing numerical analysts to study representation details when desired.
I need to calculate the value of a high dimensional integral in C++. I have found numerous libraries capable of solving this task for fixed limit integrals,
\int_{0}^{L} \int_{0}^{L} dx dy f(x,y) .
However the integrals which I am looking at have variable limits,
\int_{0}^{L} \int_{x}^{L} dx dy f(x,y) .
To clarify what i mean, here is a naive 2D Riemann sum implementation in 2D, which returns the desired result,
int steps = 100;
double integral = 0;
double dl = L/((double) steps);
double x[2] = {0};
for(int i = 0; i < steps; i ++){
x[0] = dl*i;
for(int j = i; j < steps; j ++){
x[1] = dl*j;
double val = f(x);
integral += val*val*dl*dl;
}
}
where f is some arbitrary function and L the common upper integration limit. While this implementation works, it's slow and thus impractical for higher dimensions.
Effective algorithms for higher dimensions exist, but to my knowledge, library implementations (e.g. Cuba) take a fixed value vector as the limit argument which renders them useless for my problem.
Is there any reason for this and/or is there any trick to circumvent the problem?
Your integration order is wrong, should be dy dx.
You are integrating over the triangle
0 <= x <= y <= L
inside the square [0,L]x[0,L]. This can be simulated by integrating over the full square where the integrand f is defined as 0 outside of the triangle. In many cases, when f is defined on the full square, this can be accomplished by taking the product of f with the indicator function of the triangle as new integrand.
When integrating over a triangular region such as 0<=x<=y<=L one can take advantage of symmetry: integrate f(min(x,y),max(x,y)) over the square 0<=x,y<=L and divide the result by 2. This has an advantage over extending f by zero (the method mentioned by LutzL) in that the extended function is continuous, which improves the performance of the integration routine.
I compared these on the example of the integral of 2x+y over 0<=x<=y<=1. The true value of the integral is 2/3. Let's compare the performance; for demonstration purpose I use Matlab routine, but this is not specific to language or library used.
Extending by zero
f = #(x,y) (2*x+y).*(x<=y);
result = integral2(f, 0, 1, 0, 1);
fprintf('%.9f\n',result);
Output:
Warning: Reached the maximum number of function evaluations
(10000). The result fails the global error test.
0.666727294
Extending by symmetry
g = #(x,y) (2*min(x,y)+max(x,y));
result2 = integral2(g, 0, 1, 0, 1)/2;
fprintf('%.9f\n',result2);
Output:
0.666666776
The second result is 500 times more accurate than the first.
Unfortunately, this symmetry trick is not available for general domains; but integration over a triangle comes up often enough so it's useful to keep it in mind.
I was a bit confused by your integral definition but from your code i see it like this:
just did some testing so here is your code:
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
double f(double *x) { return (x[0]+x[1]); }
void integral0()
{
double L=10.0;
int steps = 10000;
double integral = 0;
double dl = L/((double) steps);
double x[2] = {0};
for(int i = 0; i < steps; i ++){
x[0] = dl*i;
for(int j = i; j < steps; j ++){
x[1] = dl*j;
double val = f(x);
integral += val*val*dl*dl;
}
}
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is optimized code:
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
void integral1()
{
double L=10.0;
int i0,i1,steps = 10000;
double x[2]={0.0,0.0};
double integral,val,dl=L/((double)steps);
#define f(x) (x[0]+x[1])
integral=0.0;
for(x[0]= 0.0,i0= 0;i0<steps;i0++,x[0]+=dl)
for(x[1]=x[0],i1=i0;i1<steps;i1++,x[1]+=dl)
{
val=f(x);
integral+=val*val;
}
integral*=dl*dl;
#undef f
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
results:
[ 452.639 ms] integral0
[ 336.268 ms] integral1
so the increase in speed is ~ 1.3 times (on 32bit app on WOW64 AMD 3.2GHz)
for higher dimensions it will multiply
but still I think this approach is slow
The only thing to reduce complexity I can think of is algebraically simplify things
either by integration tables or by Laplace or Z transforms
but for that the f(*x) must be know ...
constant time reduction can of course be done
by the use of multi-threading
and or GPU ussage
this can give you N times speed increase
because this is all directly parallelisable
I updated the code.
What i am trying to do is to hold every lagrange's coefficient values in pointer d.(for example for L1(x) d[0] would be "x-x2/x1-x2" ,d1 would be (x-x2/x1-x2)*(x-x3/x1-x3) etc.
My problem is
1) how to initialize d ( i did d[0]=(z-x[i])/(x[k]-x[i]) but i think it's not right the "d[0]"
2) how to initialize L_coeff. ( i am using L_coeff=new double[0] but am not sure if it's right.
The exercise is:
Find Lagrange's polynomial approximation for y(x)=cos(π x), x ∈−1,1 using 5 points
(x = -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, and 1).
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <cmath>
using namespace std;
const double pi=3.14159265358979323846264338327950288;
// my function
double f(double x){
return (cos(pi*x));
}
//function to compute lagrange polynomial
double lagrange_polynomial(int N,double *x){
//N = degree of polynomial
double z,y;
double *L_coeff=new double [0];//L_coefficients of every Lagrange L_coefficient
double *d;//hold the polynomials values for every Lagrange coefficient
int k,i;
//computations for finding lagrange polynomial
//double sum=0;
for (k=0;k<N+1;k++){
for ( i=0;i<N+1;i++){
if (i==0) continue;
d[0]=(z-x[i])/(x[k]-x[i]);//initialization
if (i==k) L_coeff[k]=1.0;
else if (i!=k){
L_coeff[k]*=d[i];
}
}
cout <<"\nL("<<k<<") = "<<d[i]<<"\t\t\tf(x)= "<<f(x[k])<<endl;
}
}
int main()
{
double deg,result;
double *x;
cout <<"Give the degree of the polynomial :"<<endl;
cin >>deg;
for (int i=0;i<deg+1;i++){
cout <<"\nGive the points of interpolation : "<<endl;
cin >> x[i];
}
cout <<"\nThe Lagrange L_coefficients are: "<<endl;
result=lagrange_polynomial(deg,x);
return 0;
}
Here is an example of lagrange polynomial
As this seems to be homework, I am not going to give you an exhaustive answer, but rather try to send you on the right track.
How do you represent polynomials in a computer software? The intuitive version you want to archive as a symbolic expression like 3x^3+5x^2-4 is very unpractical for further computations.
The polynomial is defined fully by saving (and outputting) it's coefficients.
What you are doing above is hoping that C++ does some algebraic manipulations for you and simplify your product with a symbolic variable. This is nothing C++ can do without quite a lot of effort.
You have two options:
Either use a proper computer algebra system that can do symbolic manipulations (Maple or Mathematica are some examples)
If you are bound to C++ you have to think a bit more how the single coefficients of the polynomial can be computed. You programs output can only be a list of numbers (which you could, of course, format as a nice looking string according to a symbolic expression).
Hope this gives you some ideas how to start.
Edit 1
You still have an undefined expression in your code, as you never set any value to y. This leaves prod*=(y-x[i])/(x[k]-x[i]) as an expression that will not return meaningful data. C++ can only work with numbers, and y is no number for you right now, but you think of it as symbol.
You could evaluate the lagrange approximation at, say the value 1, if you would set y=1 in your code. This would give you the (as far as I can see right now) correct function value, but no description of the function itself.
Maybe you should take a pen and a piece of paper first and try to write down the expression as precise Math. Try to get a real grip on what you want to compute. If you did that, maybe you come back here and tell us your thoughts. This should help you to understand what is going on in there.
And always remember: C++ needs numbers, not symbols. Whenever you have a symbol in an expression on your piece of paper that you do not know the value of you can either find a way how to compute the value out of the known values or you have to eliminate the need to compute using this symbol.
P.S.: It is not considered good style to post identical questions in multiple discussion boards at once...
Edit 2
Now you evaluate the function at point y=0.3. This is the way to go if you want to evaluate the polynomial. However, as you stated, you want all coefficients of the polynomial.
Again, I still feel you did not understand the math behind the problem. Maybe I will give you a small example. I am going to use the notation as it is used in the wikipedia article.
Suppose we had k=2 and x=-1, 1. Furthermore, let my just name your cos-Function f, for simplicity. (The notation will get rather ugly without latex...) Then the lagrangian polynomial is defined as
f(x_0) * l_0(x) + f(x_1)*l_1(x)
where (by doing the simplifications again symbolically)
l_0(x)= (x - x_1)/(x_0 - x_1) = -1/2 * (x-1) = -1/2 *x + 1/2
l_1(x)= (x - x_0)/(x_1 - x_0) = 1/2 * (x+1) = 1/2 * x + 1/2
So, you lagrangian polynomial is
f(x_0) * (-1/2 *x + 1/2) + f(x_1) * 1/2 * x + 1/2
= 1/2 * (f(x_1) - f(x_0)) * x + 1/2 * (f(x_0) + f(x_1))
So, the coefficients you want to compute would be 1/2 * (f(x_1) - f(x_0)) and 1/2 * (f(x_0) + f(x_1)).
Your task is now to find an algorithm that does the simplification I did, but without using symbols. If you know how to compute the coefficients of the l_j, you are basically done, as you then just can add up those multiplied with the corresponding value of f.
So, even further broken down, you have to find a way to multiply the quotients in the l_j with each other on a component-by-component basis. Figure out how this is done and you are a nearly done.
Edit 3
Okay, lets get a little bit less vague.
We first want to compute the L_i(x). Those are just products of linear functions. As said before, we have to represent each polynomial as an array of coefficients. For good style, I will use std::vector instead of this array. Then, we could define the data structure holding the coefficients of L_1(x) like this:
std::vector L1 = std::vector(5);
// Lets assume our polynomial would then have the form
// L1[0] + L2[1]*x^1 + L2[2]*x^2 + L2[3]*x^3 + L2[4]*x^4
Now we want to fill this polynomial with values.
// First we have start with the polynomial 1 (which is of degree 0)
// Therefore set L1 accordingly:
L1[0] = 1;
L1[1] = 0; L1[2] = 0; L1[3] = 0; L1[4] = 0;
// Of course you could do this more elegant (using std::vectors constructor, for example)
for (int i = 0; i < N+1; ++i) {
if (i==0) continue; /// For i=0, there will be no polynomial multiplication
// Otherwise, we have to multiply L1 with the polynomial
// (x - x[i]) / (x[0] - x[i])
// First, note that (x[0] - x[i]) ist just a scalar; we will save it:
double c = (x[0] - x[i]);
// Now we multiply L_1 first with (x-x[1]). How does this multiplication change our
// coefficients? Easy enough: The coefficient of x^1 for example is just
// L1[0] - L1[1] * x[1]. Other coefficients are done similary. Futhermore, we have
// to divide by c, which leaves our coefficient as
// (L1[0] - L1[1] * x[1])/c. Let's apply this to the vector:
L1[4] = (L1[3] - L1[4] * x[1])/c;
L1[3] = (L1[2] - L1[3] * x[1])/c;
L1[2] = (L1[1] - L1[2] * x[1])/c;
L1[1] = (L1[0] - L1[1] * x[1])/c;
L1[0] = ( - L1[0] * x[1])/c;
// There we are, polynomial updated.
}
This, of course, has to be done for all L_i Afterwards, the L_i have to be added and multiplied with the function. That is for you to figure out. (Note that I made quite a lot of inefficient stuff up there, but I hope this helps you understanding the details better.)
Hopefully this gives you some idea how you could proceed.
The variable y is actually not a variable in your code but represents the variable P(y) of your lagrange approximation.
Thus, you have to understand the calculations prod*=(y-x[i])/(x[k]-x[i]) and sum+=prod*f not directly but symbolically.
You may get around this by defining your approximation by a series
c[0] * y^0 + c[1] * y^1 + ...
represented by an array c[] within the code. Then you can e.g. implement multiplication
d = c * (y-x[i])/(x[k]-x[i])
coefficient-wise like
d[i] = -c[i]*x[i]/(x[k]-x[i]) + c[i-1]/(x[k]-x[i])
The same way you have to implement addition and assignments on a component basis.
The result will then always be the coefficients of your series representation in the variable y.
Just a few comments in addition to the existing responses.
The exercise is: Find Lagrange's polynomial approximation for y(x)=cos(π x), x ∈ [-1,1] using 5 points (x = -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, and 1).
The first thing that your main() does is to ask for the degree of the polynomial. You should not be doing that. The degree of the polynomial is fully specified by the number of control points. In this case you should be constructing the unique fourth-order Lagrange polynomial that passes through the five points (xi, cos(π xi)), where the xi values are those five specified points.
const double pi=3.1415;
This value is not good for a float, let alone a double. You should be using something like const double pi=3.14159265358979323846264338327950288;
Or better yet, don't use pi at all. You should know exactly what the y values are that correspond to the given x values. What are cos(-π), cos(-π/2), cos(0), cos(π/2), and cos(π)?