MATLAB: Atand(x) very much slower than atan(x)!

atan2atan2dMATLABslow

Today I used atand(x) and atan(x). To my great surprise atand(x) was not just a little bit slower than atan(x) but is incredibly slow compared to atan(x)?
I tried to verify this by using the code below. First a time measurement for atan(x), than for atan(x) multiplied with 360/2/pi to go to degrees and finally one loop for atand(x). The results I found were:
Elapsed time is 0.047019 seconds. -> atan(x)
Elapsed time is 0.062016 seconds. -> atan(x)*360/2/pi
Elapsed time is 4.166911 seconds. -> atand(x)
And finally a test to check if atand(x) yielded identical results to atan(x) which was 'true' for all arguments tested.
This would mean that one should never use atan2d because atan2(x)*360/2/pi is much and much quicker? Why is there even a atan2d(x) function or why is it so slow?
Kind regards,
Ernst Jan Grift
clear all
n=1000000;
x_rad=zeros(1,n);
x_rad_to_d=zeros(1,n);
x_d=zeros(1,n);
arg=rand(1,n);
tic
for i=1:n
x_rad(i)=atan(arg(n));
end
toc
tic
for i=1:n
x_rad_to_d(i)=atan(arg(n))*360/2/pi;
end
toc
tic
for i=1:n
x_d(i)=atand(arg(n));
end
toc
same=x_rad_to_d==x_d;
all(same)

Best Answer

I don't see any record of this; please file an enhancement request.