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Conference clt::cobol

Title:	VAX/DEC COBOL
Notice:	Kit,doc,performance talk info-->DIR/KEY=KIT or DOC or PERF_TALK
Moderator:	PACKED::BRAFFITT

Created:	Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3250
Total number of notes:	13077

3213.0. "Question about calculating power in DEC COBOL" by DEKVC::JOONGSUNJUN () Tue Mar 11 1997 05:00

    Hi,

    Since my customer needed to calculate power of some number, a = x ** y,
    with DEC COBOL, I have tested the calculation with compute statement,
    compute a = x ** y (I could not find any system service routines).  
    x and y might be integer or real and positive and negative.

    But, if x is negative integer or negative real and
	    y is positive real or negative real, the error occurred.

    For instance, the cases were
	compute rslt = -3 ** 1.234	or
	compute rslt = -3 ** -1.234	or
	compute rslt = -3.45 ** 1.234	or
	compute rslt = -3.45 ** -1.234.

    Please inform me any other way to calculate power of some number.

    Best Regards,
    Joong-Sun Jun.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
3213.1	Are you sure that's what you want?	WIBBIN::NOYCE	Pulling weeds, pickin' stones	`Tue Mar 11 1997 09:51`	4
	The problem is that raising a negative number to a non-integer power produces a result that is a complex number, not a real number. What is the application that makes you want to do this?