Math Functions

The following Visual Basic commands have been tested with IDEA v9 and appear to be functioning properly. I have added some examples where possible on their use.

Rnd()

Brian Element's picture
Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 11:57

The Rnd() function will calculate a random number between 0 and 1.  You can then multiple it by the top number of the random interval.  So if you wanted a number between 0 and 100 you would multiple it by 100 and also use the Int() function to only capture the integer portion.  In the second example I am looking for a number between 1 and 100, in order to do this I use 99 as the top number and add 1 so that if the random number comes out as 0 it will actually be 1 because I added 1 to it.

Round()

Brian Element's picture
Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 06:53

The round function will return a specified value to the nearest number, the default value is to the nearest 0, if you wish to the nearest decimal point the function would be Round(number, numer of decimals).  I haven't found a way to round to the nearest tenths or more (one way to get around this is first divide your number by 10, assuming you want to round to the nearest tenths, them do the default round and finally multiply by 10, see the last example).  Also the return value is the same type as the value that is being rounded, so if the number is a double the return value is a

Sgn()

Brian Element's picture
Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 07:24

This function will return an indicator of the sign.  If the number is negative it returns -1, if positive it returns 1 and if it is 0 it returns 0.  The return value is an integer type.

Sin()

Brian Element's picture
Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 07:35

The Sin function returns the sine of an angle.  The return value is of type double.

Sqr()

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Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 08:08

This function returns the square root of a number.  The return value is a double type.

Tan()

Brian Element's picture
Submitted by Brian Element on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 08:10

This function returns the tangent of an angle.  The return value is of type double.

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