TutsPlus.com: Trigonometry, Random Numbers and More With Built-in PHP Math Functions

The TutsPlus.com site has another great PHP tutorial for those new to the language covering mathematical functionality in the language, from the basics out to more complex topics like trigonometry and random number generation.

Basic maths is used a lot during programming. We need to frequently compare, add, multiply, subtract and divide different values when writing code.

Sometimes, the maths required in a program can be more involved. You might need to work with logarithmic, trigonometric or exponential functions. In this tutorial, I'll discuss how to use each of these functions in PHP, with examples.

This tutorial will introduce you to the built-in math functions in PHP for doing trigonometry, exponentiation, and logarithm calculations. We'll also look at rounding and generating random numbers.

They start off with some of the "heavy hitters" in PHP's math functionality and how how to perform trigonometric operations with the likes of sin, cos and tan. This is applied to create an interesting dynamic image using the GD functionality. Next up comes the exponential and logarithmic functions with simple examples followed by a section sharing some other useful math functions for more everyday needs.