I'm currently writing an impreter for simple mathematical expressions (constants and simple arithmetic).
The problem I'm having is with building an expression tree from a postfix formatted expression. What I've done works fine in most scenarios, but not with this example from Wikipedia.
If I evaluate the expression 3 + 4 * 2 / ( 1 - 5 ) ^ 2 ^ 3
, I get the result 3,0001220703125
even though the result should be 3,001953125
.
The reason for this seems to be that the expression tree looks like 3+((4*2)/((1-5)^(2^3)))
instead of (3+((4*2)/(((1-5)^2)^3)))
.
The postfix notation of the original expression looks like 3 4 2 * 1 5 − 2 3 ^ ^ / +
Any suggestions how to get the expression tree as I want it to be?
Below is the postfix to expression tree code and some tests which is in C# but should be pretty self-explanatory.
public MathExpression Parse()
{
var tokens = this.ToPostFix(_tokens);
var stack = new Stack<MathExpression>();
foreach(token in tokens)
{
if(token.IsOperand())
{
// Push the operand on the stack.
stack.Push(new ConstantExpression(token.Value));
}
else
{
Debug.Assert(token.Type == TokenType.Operator, "Expected operator.");
var op = (Operator)token.Value;
var right = stack.Pop();
var left = stack.Pop();
var expression = new ArithmeticExpression(op, left, right);
stack.Push(expression);
}
}
Debug.Assert(stack.Count == 1, "More than one expression on stack.");
return stack.Pop();
}
And some tests:
[Test]
public void Wikipedia_Example_Can_Be_Evaluated()
{
var expected = 3+4*2/(1-5)^2^3; // 3,001953125
var actual = MathExpression.Parse("3 + 4 * 2 / ( 1 - 5 ) ^ 2 ^ 3")
.Evaluate(); // 3,0001220703125
Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); // Not equal :(
}
[Test]
public void Can_Convert_To_Prefix()
{
string expected = "3 4 2 * 1 5 − 2 3 ^ ^ / +"
string actual = MathExpression.ToPostFix("3+4*2/(1-5)^2^3")
Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); // Works as expected
}
The WikiPedia page contains this remark:
^
is evaluated right-to-left
I don't see your code taking that into account, ^
is treated the same as the other operators, as left-associative.
That means that your interpretation might be wrong:
x ^ 2 ^ 3
=> x^(2^3)
=> x 2 3 ^ ^
and your code and original answer (3,0001220703125) are correct.