e^x without math.h - c

Question

I'm trying to find ex without using math.h. My code gives wrong anwsers when x is bigger or lower than ~±20. I tried to change all double types to long double types, but it gave some trash on input.
My code is:
#include <stdio.h>
double fabs1(double x) {
if(x >= 0){
return x;
} else {
return x*(-1);
}
}
double powerex(double x) {
double a = 1.0, e = a;
for (int n = 1; fabs1(a) > 0.001; ++n) {
a = a * x / n;
e += a;
}
return e;
}
int main(){
freopen("input.txt", "r", stdin);
freopen("output.txt", "w", stdout);
int n;
scanf("%d", &n);
for(int i = 0; i<n; i++) {
double number;
scanf("%lf", &number);
double e = powerex(number);
printf("%0.15g\n", e);
}
return 0;
}
Input:
8
0.0
1.0
-1.0
2.0
-2.0
100.0
-100.0
0.189376476361643
My output:
1
2.71825396825397
0.367857142857143
7.38899470899471
0.135379188712522
2.68811714181613e+043
-2.91375564689153e+025
1.20849374134639
Right output:
1
2.71828182845905
0.367879441171442
7.38905609893065
0.135335283236613
2.68811714181614e+43
3.72007597602084e-44
1.20849583696666
You can see that my answer for e−100 is absolutely incorrect. Why does my code output this? What can I do to improve this algorithm?

Answer 1

When x is negative, the sign of each term alternates. This means each successive sum switches widely in value rather than increasing more gradually when a positive power is used. This means that the loss in precision with successive terms has a large effect on the result.
To handle this, check the sign of x at the start. If it is negative, switch the sign of x to perform the calculation, then when you reach the end of the loop invert the result.
Also, you can reduce the number of iterations by using the following counterintuitive condtion:
e != e + a
On its face, it appears that this should always be true. However, the condition becomes false when the value of a is outside of the precision of the value of e, in which case adding a to e doesn't change the value of e.
double powerex(double x) {
double a = 1.0, e = a;
int invert = x<0;
x = fabs1(x);
for (int n = 1; e != e + a ; ++n) {
a = a * x / n;
e += a;
}
return invert ? 1/e : e;
}
We can optimize a bit more to remove one loop iteration by initializing e with 0 instead of a, and calculating the next term at the bottom of the loop instead of the top:
double powerex(double x) {
double a = 1.0, e = 0;
int invert = x<0;
x = fabs1(x);
for (int n = 1; e != e + a ; ++n) {
e += a;
a = a * x / n;
}
return invert ? 1/e : e;
}

Answer 2

For values of x above one or so, you may consider to handle the integer part separately and compute powers of e by squarings. (E.g. e^9 = ((e²)²)².e takes 4 multiplies)
Indeed, the general term of the Taylor development, x^n/n! only starts to decrease after n>x (you multiply each time by x/k), so the summation takes at least x terms. On another hand, e^n can be computed in at most 2lg(n) multiplies, which is more efficient and more accurate.
So I would advise
to take the fractional part of x and use Taylor,
when the integer part is positive, multiply by e raised to that power,
when the integer part is zero, you are done,
when the integer part is negative, divide by e raised to that power.
You can even spare more by considering quarters: in the worst case (x=1), Taylor requires 18 terms before the last one becomes negligible. If you consider subtracting from x the immediately inferior multiple of 1/4 (and compensate multiplying by precomputed powers of e), the number of terms drops to 12.
E.g. e^0.8 = e^(3/4+0.05) = 2.1170000166126747 . e^0.05