Many mathematical objects can be represented by several equivalent expressions.

For example, the expressions in each row below represent the same mathematical object:

The Compute Engine stores expressions internally in a canonical form to simplify comparisons and to make it easier to implement algorithms that work with expressions.

The value of expr.simplify(), expr.evaluate() and expr.N() are canonical expressions.

The ce.box() and ce.parse() functions return a canonical expression by default, which is the desirable behavior in most cases.

To get a non-canonical version of an expression set the canonical option of ce.parse() or ce.box() to false.

The non-canonical version will be closer to the literal LaTeX input, which may be desirable to compare a “raw” user input with an expected answer.

ce.parse('\\frac{30}{-50}');
// ➔ ["Rational", -3, 5]
// The canonical version moves the sign to the numerator and reduces the 
// numerator and denominator

ce.parse('\\frac{30}{-50}', { canonical: false });
// ➔ ["Divide", 30, -50]
// The non-canonical version does not change the arguments,
// so this is interpreted as a regular fraction ("Divide"), 
// not as a rational number.

The value of expr.json (the plain JSON representation of an expression) may not be in canonical form: some “sugaring” is applied to the internal representation before being returned, for example ["Power", "x", 2] is returned as ["Square", "x"].

You can customize how an expression is serialized to plain JSON by using ce.jsonSerializationOptions.

const expr = ce.parse("\\frac{3}{5}");
console.log(expr.json)
// ➔ ["Rational", 3, 5]

ce.jsonSerializationOptions = { exclude: ["Rational"] };
console.log(expr.json);
// ➔ ["Divide", 3, 5]
// We have excluded `["Rational"]` expressions, so it 
// is interepreted as a division instead.

The canonical form of an expression is always the same when used with a given Compute Engine instance. However, do not rely on the canonical form as future versions of the Compute Engine could provide a different result.

To check if an expression is canonical use expr.isCanonical.

To obtain the canonical representation of a non-canonical expression, use the expr.canonical property.

If the expression is already canonical, expr.canonical immediately returns expr.

const expr = ce.parse("\\frac{10}{30}", { canonical: false });
console.log(expr.json);
// ➔ ["Divide", 10, 30]

console.log(expr.isCanonical);
// ➔ false

console.log(expr.canonical);
// ➔ ["Rational", 1, 3]

Canonical Form Transformations

The canonical form used by the Compute Engine follows common conventions. However, it is not always “the simplest” way to represent an expression.

Calculating the canonical form of an expression involves applying some rewriting rules to an expression to put sums, products, numbers, roots, etc… in canonical form. In that sense, it is similar to simplifying an expression with expr.simplify(), but it is more conservative in the transformations it applies, and it will not take into account any assumptions about symbols or their value.

Below is a list of some of the transformations applied to obtain the canonical form:

• Idempotency: \( f(f(x)) \to f(x) \)
• Involution: \( f(f(x)) \to x \)
• Associativity: \( f(a, f(b, c)) \to f(a, b, c) \)
• Literals
  • Rationals are reduced, e.g. \( \frac{6}{4} \to \frac{3}{2}\)
  • The denominator of rationals is made positive, e.g. \(\frac{5}{-11} \to \frac{-5}{11}\)
  • A rational with a denominator of 1 is replaced with a number, e.g. \(\frac{19}{1} \to 19\)
  • Complex numbers with no imaginary component are replaced with a real number
• Add
  • Arguments are sorted
  • Sum of a literal and the product of a literal with the imaginary unit are replaced with a complex number.
• Multiply: Arguments are sorted
• Negate: ["Negate", 3] \(\to\) -3
• Power
  • \(x^{\tilde\infty} \to \operatorname{NaN}\)
  • \(x^0 \to 1\)
  • \(x^1 \to x\)
  • \((\pm 1)^{-1} \to -1\)
  • \((\pm\infty)^{-1} \to 0\)
  • \(0^{\infty} \to \tilde\infty\)
  • \((\pm 1)^{\pm \infty} \to \operatorname{NaN}\)
  • \(\infty^{\infty} \to \infty\)
  • \(\infty^{-\infty} \to 0\)
  • \((-\infty)^{\pm \infty} \to \operatorname{NaN}\)
• Square: ["Power", "x", 2] \(\to\) ["Square", "x"]
• Sqrt: ["Sqrt", "x"] \(\to\)["Power", "x", "Half"]
• Root: ["Root", "x", 3] \(\to\) ["Power", "x", ["Rational", 1, 3]]
• Subtract: ["Subtract", "a", "b"] \(\to\) ["Add", ["Negate", "b"], "a"]