tan

Tangent of argument in radians

Syntax

Y = tan(X)

Description

Y = tan(X) returns the tangent of each element of X. The tan function operates element-wise on arrays. The function accepts both real and complex inputs.

• For real values of X, tan(X) returns real values in the interval [-∞, ∞].

• For complex values of X, tan(X) returns complex values.

Examples

Plot Tangent Function

Plot the tangent function over the domain $$-\pi /2\le x\le \pi /2$$.

x = (-pi/2)+0.01:0.01:(pi/2)-0.01;
plot(x,tan(x)), grid on

Tangent of Vector of Complex Angles

Calculate the tangent of the complex angles in vector x.

x = [-i pi+i*pi/2 -1+i*4];
y = tan(x)

y = 1×3 complex

   0.0000 - 0.7616i  -0.0000 + 0.9172i  -0.0006 + 1.0003i

Input Arguments

X — Input angle in radians

scalar | vector | matrix | multidimensional array | table | timetable

Input angle in radians, specified as a scalar, vector, matrix, multidimensional array, table, or timetable.

Data Types: single | double | table | timetable
Complex Number Support: Yes

Output Arguments

Y — Tangent of input angle

scalar | vector | matrix | multidimensional array | table | timetable

Tangent of input angle, returned as a real-valued or complex-valued scalar, vector, matrix, multidimensional array, table, or timetable.

More About

Tangent Function

The tangent of an angle, α, defined with reference to a right triangle is

$$\text{tan}(\alpha )=\frac{\text{opposite side}}{\text{adjacent side}}=\frac{a}{b}.$$

.

The tangent of a complex argument, α, is

$$\text{tan}\left(\alpha \right)=\frac{e^{i\alpha }-e^{-i\alpha }}{i\left(e^{i\alpha }+e^{-i\alpha }\right)}.$$

.

Tips

• In floating-point arithmetic, tan is a bounded function. That is, tan does not return values of Inf or -Inf at points of divergence that are multiples of pi, but a large magnitude number instead. This stems from the inaccuracy of the floating-point representation of π.

Extended Capabilities

Tall Arrays

Calculate with arrays that have more rows than fit in memory.

The tan function fully supports tall arrays. For more information, see Tall Arrays.

C/C++ Code Generation
Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

GPU Code Generation
Generate CUDA® code for NVIDIA® GPUs using GPU Coder™.

Thread-Based Environment

Run code in the background using MATLAB® backgroundPool or accelerate code with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ ThreadPool.

This function fully supports thread-based environments. For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions in Thread-Based Environment.

GPU Arrays

Accelerate code by running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

The tan function fully supports GPU arrays. To run the function on a GPU, specify the input data as a gpuArray (Parallel Computing Toolbox). For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions on a GPU (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Distributed Arrays

Partition large arrays across the combined memory of your cluster using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

This function fully supports distributed arrays. For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions with Distributed Arrays (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2023a: Perform calculations directly on tables and timetables

The tan function can calculate on all variables within a table or timetable without indexing to access those variables. All variables must have data types that support the calculation. For more information, see Direct Calculations on Tables and Timetables.