mathjs/docs/configuration.md

Configuration

Math.js contains a number of configuration settings. Configuration can be set when creating a math.js instance, or later on using the function config. Available configuration settings are:

• matrix.defaultType. The default type of matrix output for functions. Available values are: 'matrix' (default) or 'array'. Where possible, the type of matrix output from functions is determined from the function input: An array as input will return an Array, a Matrix as input will return a Matrix. In case of no matrix as input, the type of output is determined by the option matrix.defaultType. In case of mixed matrix inputs, a matrix will be returned always.

• number.defaultType. The default type of numbers. Available values are: 'number' (default) or 'bignumber'. Big numbers have higher precision than the default numbers of JavaScript.

• number.precision. The number of significant digits for big numbers. Only applies to big numbers, not to numbers. Default value is 20.

  Important: This setting is applied application wide to all BigNumbers. Behind the scenes, this setting is applied as the global DECIMAL_PLACES setting of the bignumber.js library used by math.js.

Examples

This section shows a number of configuration examples.

Default settings

// load the library
var mathjs = require('mathjs');

// create an instance of math.js with default configuration
var math1 = mathjs();

// range will output a matrix
math1.range(0, 4); // Matrix [0, 1, 2, 3]

Configuration for matrices

// load the library
var mathjs = require('mathjs');

// create an instance of math.js with configuration settings
var settings = {
  matrix: {
    defaultType: 'array'
  }
};
var math2 = mathjs(settings);

// range will output an Array
math2.range(0, 4); // Array [0, 1, 2, 3]

// change configuration
math2.config({
  matrix: {
    defaultType: 'matrix'
  }
});

// range will output a Matrix
math2.range(0, 4); // Matrix [0, 1, 2, 3]

Configuration for big numbers

// load the library
var mathjs = require('mathjs');

// use big numbers by default
var math3 = mathjs({
  number: {
    defaultType: 'bignumber',
    precision: 32
  }
});

// parser will parse numbers as BigNumber now:
math3.eval('1 / 3'); // BigNumber, 0.33333333333333333333333333333333