Examples

The following program uses the Brent algorithm to find the minimum of the function @math{f(x) = \cos(x) + 1}, which occurs at @math{x = \pi}. The starting interval is @math{(0,6)}, with an initial guess for the minimum of @math{2}.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_errno.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_math.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_min.h>

double fn1 (double x, void * params)
{
  return cos(x) + 1.0;
}

int
main (void)
{
  int status;
  int iter = 0, max_iter = 100;
  const gsl_min_fminimizer_type *T;
  gsl_min_fminimizer *s;
  double m = 2.0, m_expected = M_PI;
  double a = 0.0, b = 6.0;
  gsl_function F;

  F.function = &fn1;
  F.params = 0;

  T = gsl_min_fminimizer_brent;
  s = gsl_min_fminimizer_alloc (T);
  gsl_min_fminimizer_set (s, &F, m, a, b);

  printf ("using %s method\n",
          gsl_min_fminimizer_name (s));

  printf ("%5s [%9s, %9s] %9s %10s %9s\n",
          "iter", "lower", "upper", "min",
          "err", "err(est)");

  printf ("%5d [%.7f, %.7f] %.7f %+.7f %.7f\n",
          iter, a, b,
          m, m - m_expected, b - a);

  do
    {
      iter++;
      status = gsl_min_fminimizer_iterate (s);

      m = gsl_min_fminimizer_minimum (s);
      a = gsl_min_fminimizer_x_lower (s);
      b = gsl_min_fminimizer_x_upper (s);

      status 
        = gsl_min_test_interval (a, b, 0.001, 0.0);

      if (status == GSL_SUCCESS)
        printf ("Converged:\n");

      printf ("%5d [%.7f, %.7f] "
              "%.7f %.7f %+.7f %.7f\n",
              iter, a, b,
              m, m_expected, m - m_expected, b - a);
    }
  while (status == GSL_CONTINUE && iter < max_iter);

  return status;
}

Here are the results of the minimization procedure.

bash$ ./a.out 
    0 [0.0000000, 6.0000000] 2.0000000 -1.1415927 6.0000000
    1 [2.0000000, 6.0000000] 3.2758640 +0.1342713 4.0000000
    2 [2.0000000, 3.2831929] 3.2758640 +0.1342713 1.2831929
    3 [2.8689068, 3.2831929] 3.2758640 +0.1342713 0.4142862
    4 [2.8689068, 3.2831929] 3.2758640 +0.1342713 0.4142862
    5 [2.8689068, 3.2758640] 3.1460585 +0.0044658 0.4069572
    6 [3.1346075, 3.2758640] 3.1460585 +0.0044658 0.1412565
    7 [3.1346075, 3.1874620] 3.1460585 +0.0044658 0.0528545
    8 [3.1346075, 3.1460585] 3.1460585 +0.0044658 0.0114510
    9 [3.1346075, 3.1460585] 3.1424060 +0.0008133 0.0114510
   10 [3.1346075, 3.1424060] 3.1415885 -0.0000041 0.0077985
Converged:                            
   11 [3.1415885, 3.1424060] 3.1415927 -0.0000000 0.0008175