C/C++ Interactive Reference Guide

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.pl 63 .po 0 .. .. this article was prepared for the C/Unix Programmer's Notebook .. Copyright 1984 (c) Anthony Skjellum. .. .. by A. Skjellum .. .he "C/Unix Programmer's Notebook" for October, 1984 DDJ. Introduction The thrust of this entire column is to illustrate scientific uses of the C programming language by examples. The aim is to present routines useful in conjunction with scientific programming, some of which are general and others which implement specific numerical algorithms. There are specific audiences for which this column is intended. The first audience is the group of die-hard programmers who refuse to change languages and continue to produce useful programs in outdated languages. Not only is this of greater expense to themselves, but also cheats others by locking them into FORTRAN or other old-fashioned languages. For them, I want to illustrate the elegance and versatility of C. The second audience (which may also include the first as a subset) are those users interested in scientific applications but who may not have used C for this purpose. This article is intended to illustrate that C is completely acceptable for such purposes and the code shows how generally concepts can be presented. (This article makes no attempt to survey scientific applications where C could be used but merely includes some non-trivial examples). Finally, for those readers who don't fit into the above categories, the general purpose routines will still prove interesting. Three programming systems are presented. The first is a set of general purpose subroutines which are designed to simplify the process of user-program interaction, and to provide a straight-forward means for handling erroneous input. The input mechanisms are not particularly sophisticated, but emphasize structure in the user's program. The routines make range checking so automatic that the programmer has no excuse for omitting such checks, regardless of how 'quickly' a program is to be completed. Providing these routines to novice programmers in a classroom environment has eliminated a lot of frustration over using the scanf() function. The second and third programming systems illustrate Runge-Kutta integration. The Runge-Kutta formalism is a standard numerical technique for handling the numerical integration of one or more first order ordinary differential equations. Interested readers may wish to consult the book Numerical Analysis, by Richard L. Burden et. al. (Prindle, Weber, Schmidt publishers, Second edition, 1981). This is the source for the algorithms presented in the code and is also a fine reference for introductory numerical methods. The choice of Runge-Kutta routines as examples was based on their widespread use in scientific work. Acknowledgements The general purpose library has received extensive use by Caltech students during the past school year. Thanks are due to Scott Lewicki who discovered a couple of minor details which caused major errors. The Runge-Kutta code was developed by Michael J. Roberts and myself. Mr. Roberts developed the major portion of the RKSYS (multiple equations) routines as a project for Caltech's Physics 20 course: Introduction to Computational Physics (Prof. Geoffrey C. Fox, instructor). Approximately sixty man hours were spent in developing, testing and debugging this code. Mr. Roberts also wrote the original version of the documentation for RKSYS included in modified form as Table III. GPR: General Purpose Routines The general purpose library consists of five subroutines. Four of these subroutines deal with input. The fifth is a simple facility for printing files to the console. This latter routine is called display() and will be considered separately from the input functions. The other routines are iinp(), finp(), sinp() and cinq(). The first three provide integer, floating point, and string input respectively. The latter is a yes-no question processor. The exact calling sequences for each of the routines is provided in Table I. .pa ---------- Table I. ---------- 1. int iinp(prompt,cflag,low,high); char *prompt: optional prompt string to be printed before input char cflag: checking flag: if non-zero, range checking is performed int low int high: low, high are (inclusive) range checking values iinp() repeats input until a valid number is entered; the valid number is the function's return value. 2. double finp(prompt,cflag,low,high); char *prompt: optional prompt string to be printed before input char cflag: checking flag: if non-zero, range checking is performed double low double high: low, high are (inclusive) range checking values finp() repeats input until a valid number is entered; the valid number is the function's return value 3. len = sinp(prompt,string,length); int len: length of entered string char *prompt: optional prompt string to be printed before input int length: maximum length of input string sinp() ignores leading spaces. 4. retn = cinq(prompt); int retn: 1 --> 'Y' was typed, 0 --> 'N' was typed char *prompt: optional prompt string to be printed before input 5. retn = display(fname); int retn: 0 --> success, -1 --> failure char *fname: null-terminated name of file display() prints the specified file on the standard output device. ---------- End Table I. ---------- .pa Traditionally, user input consists of a sequence of lines such as the following sequence for inputting an integer: #define MIN 10 #define MAX 100 ... int input; ... while (1) /* input loop */ { printf("Enter input variable --> "); if (scanf("%u",&input) != 1) /* get variable */ { drain(); /* drain spurious characters */ continue; /* skip range checks */ } /* do range checking */ if ((input >= MIN) && (input <= MAX)) break; /* we are done */ printf("\nNumber out of range\n"); } /* keep looping until scanf() can read a variable */ Entering this sequence repeatedly can be rather tedious from a programmatical point of view, so error checking is often omitted. This practice leads to programs which do not handle user mistakes intelligently. The GPR routines allow the above sequence to be replaced by a single line of code: input = iinp("Enter input variable -->",1,MIN,MAX); Since using the GPR input functions is easier than using scanf(), this variety of function should be well-received and can be used in lieu of scanf() for most purposes. A further advantage of these functions is that they unclutter the user's program. More sophisticated checking will still need to be included explicitly: the input functions only do range checking. The display() function was included to encourage users to provide on-line help/documentation along with their programs. This function allows users to print out additional text whenever appropriate. With this function, a trivial on-line help facility can be created; a help feature is almost always appropriate but usually is omitted. The GPR routines may be found in Listing I. The current list is not exhaustive but intended only to suggest a trend for additional routines. RK4: Runge-Kutta Algorithm We have investigated the general purpose library which simplifies the task of correct input. Now we want to consider a scientific application of C: single equation Runge-Kutta integration. Before introducing the code, some background is required. We start with a differential equation in the canonical form y' = f(y,t) where y' is the first derivative of y with respect to t and f(y,t) is a piece-wise continuous function of its arguments. In addition to the differential equation, we are given an initial condition. Namely, y(t=0) = y0 where y0 is some real constant (e.g. 35.1). These two equations uniquely specify the solution y(t) which is as yet unknown. The need for numerical techniques arise when the differential equation cannot be solved analytically. There are many possible numerical approaches to the solution of this equation, but considering them is beyond the scope of the current discussion. For now, it is sufficient to state that a technique exists called RK4 (Runge-Kutta fourth order) which will solve the equation numerically with known error characteristics. Solution of a typical equation is presented in Listing II. for the equation y'(t) = 1 + y with the initial condition y(t=0) = 5.0 Since this equation can also be solved analytically, a comparison is made with the exact solution in order to demonstrate error characteristics of the method. The analytical solution turns out to be y(t) = t + 5.0*exp(t) This latter result can be deduced by inspection. The Runge-Kutta algorithm and code is presented in Listing III. Readers interested in more information should consult the book by Burden et al. Calling sequences are described in Table II. .pa ---------- Table II. ---------- RK4: Runge-Kutta Integrator ---------------- Description: File: RK4.C, Subroutine Library: Listing III. The C language call is as follows: rk4(function,a,b,n,alpha,t,w); where: function returns the right-hand side f(y,t) of the system. a is the start of the interval of integration b is the end of the interval of integration n is the number of integration steps alpha is the initial value y(0) = alpha t is the array where the times will be stored w is where the approximations to y will be stored The formal C definitions for the function and its parameters are: 1. rk4(): n step integrator rk4(function,a,b,n,alpha,t,w) double (*function)(); /* function giving f(t,y) */ double a; /* beginning of interval */ double b; /* end of interval */ int n; /* number of steps in interval */ double alpha; /* initial condition for y */ double t[]; /* array for returning T[i] values */ double w[]; /* array for returning W[i] values */ .cp 8 2. rk4_1(): 1 step integrator rk4_1(function,h,time,yapprox) double (*function)(); /* Pointer to function to integrate */ double h; /* Step size */ double time; /* Current time step */ double *yapprox; /* Current approximation of function */ ---------- End Table II. ---------- .pa RKSYS: Systems of differential equations Imagine now that we have a set (system) of N first-order ordinary differential equations: y '(t) = f (t,y ,y ... y ) (i = 1,2,...N) i i 1 2 N This problem is useful for solving other systems too, since sets of linear differential equations involving higher-order derivatives can be transformed to larger systems of the above variety (see Burden). Thus, a program which can solve the above system has reasonably wide applicability. Unfortunately, the problem is more complicated for N equations than for one equation as is evident from Table III. in which the more general Runge-Kutta software is described. (Listing IV. contains the actual code.) Listings V. and VI. are example programs which use rk4n() to solve small systems of equations. The Listing V. implements the same problem as Listing II., but using rk4n() instead of rk4() to perform the integration. .pa ---------- Table III. ---------- RK System Solver (RKSYS) ---------------- Files: RKS.C, Subroutine library: Listing IV. RKST1.C, Test program #1: Listing V. RKST2.C Test program #2: Listing VI. The format of the C language call is as follows: rk4n(function,wsource,wstore,m,a,b,n,alpha,t,kuttas); where: function is a pointer to the function which will return the first derivatives of each function in your system. It will be called as: function(j,i,tval,rk_comp) where: j is the current time step i is the current function number (0, 1, ..., n-1). tval is the current time value rk_comp is a pointer to a function which your derivative function must call as: rk_comp(n,j,i) where: n is the function number in the system (0,...n-1) of the function you wish to evaluate. j is the time step. i is the current function number. .cp 8 wsource is a pointer to your function which will return a W value (which will have been stored by the user's WSTORE routine -- one need only worry about storing and returning these values, not the values themselves). It will be called as: wsource(j,i) where: j is the current time step. i is the current function number. wstore is a pointer to the user's function which will store values of W (see wsource above). It is called as: wstore(j,i,value) where: j is the current time step. i is the current function number. value is the value to be stored for that location. Note: wsource(j,i) should be equal to "value" after wstore(j,i,value). m is the number of equations in your system. a is the starting time value for the interval. b is the ending time value for the interval. n is the number of points into which the interval is to be broken. alpha is a one dimensional array of the initial values. The value alpha[0] is the first function at time = a, alpha[1] is the second, etc. t is a one dimensional array where rk4n() will store the time values as it calculates them. It must be at least as large as n. kuttas is a two dimensional array, the size of whose second element is 4 (i.e., Kuttas[][4]). It will be the storage area for "k" values as they are calculated. The formal C definitions for the function and its parameters are: double rk4n(function,wsource,wstore,m,a,b,n,alpha,t,kuttas) double (*function)(); double (*wsource)(); double (*wstore)(); int m; double a; double b; int n; double alpha[]; double t[]; double kuttas[][4]; Comments on array sizes, (*wsource)(), (*wstore)(): The (*wstore)() function should trap out-of-bound storage requests which result as a natural part of the rk4n() algorithm. A more elegant solution is to make the array size used by (*wstore)() one greater than the number of steps. ---------- End Table III. ---------- .pa How to use the integrator The rk4n() subroutine will solve a system of first-order differential equations as specified by the calling program, using the Runge-Kutta order four integrator described in Burden et. al, pages 239-240 (refer also to page 205). The calling program must provide information for the rk4n() subroutine in order for it to solve the system of differential equations. This information must consist of: * The first derivatives of each of the functions in the system. * Subroutines to store and retrieve values as the functions are integrated * Initial conditions for each of the functions * The range over which the function will be integrated * Storage areas for the time and intermediate "K" value arrays. The information must be provided in a specific order and format, which is described in Table III. By studying the Runge-Kutta routines, the reader will notice the central importance of pointers to functions in the organization of the code. Using this concept effectively allows the software to be completely divorced of the specifics of the user's program. Conclusions In this article, three sets of example routines were presented. This code was included to demonstrate how scientific applications and related software is actually implemented in C. Studying the examples should help the reader to gain insight into the use of C for similar undertakings. Copyright Notice All the code presented with this article is copyright 1983, 1984 (c) by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA 91125. All rights reserved. This code may be freely distributed, used for all non-commercial purposes, but may not be sold.