Main Content

rats

Rational output

Description

example

S = rats(X) returns a character vector containing the rational approximations to the elements of X. Asterisks indicate elements that cannot be printed in the allotted space, but which are not negligible compared to the other elements in X.

example

S = rats(X,strlen) specifies the length of the character vector to use for the rational approximation. For real inputs strlength(S) is equal to strlen+1, while for complex inputs it is equal to 2*strlen+3. The rational approximation uses a tolerance that is inversely proportional to the specified length, as explained in the Algorithms section.

Examples

collapse all

Create a 4-by-4 matrix.

format short
X = hilb(4)
X = 4×4

    1.0000    0.5000    0.3333    0.2500
    0.5000    0.3333    0.2500    0.2000
    0.3333    0.2500    0.2000    0.1667
    0.2500    0.2000    0.1667    0.1429

View the rational representation of the matrix using rats. The result is the same as using format rat.

R = rats(X)
R = 4x56 char array
    '       1            1/2           1/3           1/4     '
    '      1/2           1/3           1/4           1/5     '
    '      1/3           1/4           1/5           1/6     '
    '      1/4           1/5           1/6           1/7     '

Find the rational representation of pi with the default character vector length and approximation tolerance. The result is the same as using format rat.

rats(pi)
ans = 
'    355/113   '

Adjust the length of the output, which also adjusts the approximation tolerance.

rats(pi,20)
ans = 
'    104348/33215     '

The resulting rational approximation has greater accuracy. As the output length increases, the tolerance decreases.

Adjust the output length again to achieve greater accuracy.

rats(pi,25)
ans = 
'      1146408/364913      '

The resulting approximation agrees with pi to 10 decimal places.

Input Arguments

collapse all

Input array, specified as an array of class single or double.

Data Types: single | double
Complex Number Support: Yes

Length of character vector, specified as a positive integer. The length of the character vector you specify controls how precise the rational approximation is. Larger character vectors allow for a more accurate rational approximation.

The default length of 13 produces character vectors of length strlen+1 for real inputs and of length 2*strlen+3 for complex inputs.

Algorithms

rats obtains rational approximations with [N,D] = rat(X,tol), where tol is min(10^(-(strlen-1)/2)*norm(X(isfinite(X)),1),.1). Thus, the tolerance is inversely proportional to the output length, strlen.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

|