How to use the PI constant in C++

Question

I want to use the PI constant and trigonometric functions in some C++ program. I get the trigonometric functions with include <math.h>. However, there doesn't seem to be a definition for PI in this header file.

How can I get PI without defining it manually?

Answer 1

On some (especially older) platforms (see the comments below) you might need to

#define _USE_MATH_DEFINES 

and then include the necessary header file:

#include <math.h> 

and the value of pi can be accessed via:

M_PI 

In my math.h (2014) it is defined as:

# define M_PI           3.14159265358979323846  /* pi */ 

but check your math.h for more. An extract from the "old" math.h (in 2009):

/* Define _USE_MATH_DEFINES before including math.h to expose these macro  * definitions for common math constants.  These are placed under an #ifdef  * since these commonly-defined names are not part of the C/C++ standards.  */ 

However:

1. on newer platforms (at least on my 64 bit Ubuntu 14.04) I do not need to define the _USE_MATH_DEFINES

2. On (recent) Linux platforms there are long double values too provided as a GNU Extension:

   # define M_PIl          3.141592653589793238462643383279502884L /* pi */ 

Answer 2

Pi can be calculated as atan(1)*4. You could calculate the value this way and cache it.