NAME

Math::Symbolic::Custom::Factor - Re-arrange a Math::Symbolic expression into a product of factors

VERSION

Version 0.13

DESCRIPTION

Provides method to_factored() through the Math::Symbolic module extension class. This method attempts to factorize a Math::Symbolic expression.

This is a very early version and can only factor relatively simple expressions. It has a few factoring strategies in it, and hopefully more will come along in later versions if I have time to implement them.

EXAMPLES

            

              
              
use strict;
use Math::Symbolic qw/:all/;
use Math::Symbolic::Custom::Factor;
# to_factored() returns the full expression as a product of factors
# and an array ref to the factors themselves (so that multiplying them 
# together and collecting up should produce the original expression).
my ($factored, $factors) = parse_from_string("3*x + 12*y")->to_factored();
# $factored and the factors in $factors->[] are Math::Symbolic expressions.
print "Full expression: $factored\n";   # Full expression: (x + (4 * y)) * 3
print "Factors: '", join(q{', '}, @{$factors}), "'\n\n";  # Factors: '3', 'x + (4 * y)'
($factored, $factors) = parse_from_string("x^2 - 81")->to_factored();
print "Full expression: $factored\n";   # Full expression: (9 + x) * (x - 9)
print "Factors: '", join(q{', '}, @{$factors}), "'\n\n";  # Factors: 'x - 9', '9 + x'
($factored, $factors) = parse_from_string("6*x^2 + 37*x + 6")->to_factored();
print "Full expression: $factored\n";   # Full expression: (6 + x) * (1 + (6 * x))
print "Factors: '", join(q{', '}, @{$factors}), "'\n\n";  # Factors: '6 + x', '1 + (6 * x)'
($factored, $factors) = parse_from_string("y^4 - 5*y^3 - 5*y^2 + 23*y + 10")->to_factored();
print "Full expression: $factored\n";   # Full expression: ((y - 5) * (((y ^ 2) - 1) - (2 * y))) * (2 + y)
print "Factors: '", join(q{', '}, @{$factors}), "'\n\n";  # Factors: '2 + y', 'y - 5', '((y ^ 2) - 1) - (2 * y)'
# This one does not factor (using the strategies in this module).
# The original expression is returned (albeit re-arranged) and the number of entries in
# @{$factors} is 1.
($factored, $factors) = parse_from_string("x^2 + 2*x + 2")->to_factored();
print "Full expression: $factored\n";   # Full expression: (2 + (2 * x)) + (x ^ 2)
print "Factors: '", join(q{', '}, @{$factors}), "'\n";  # Factors: '(2 + (2 * x)) + (x ^ 2)'
print "Did not factorize\n\n" if scalar(@{$factors}) == 1; # Did not factorize
            
          

SEE ALSO

Math::Symbolic

Math::Symbolic::Custom::Collect

Math::Symbolic::Custom::Polynomial

AUTHOR

Matt Johnson, <mjohnson at cpan.org>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Steffen Mueller, author of Math::Symbolic

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This software is copyright (c) 2025 by Matt Johnson.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.