# [Tex/LaTex] formal syntax rules of \dimexpr \numexpr \glueexpr

e-textex-core

After looking at various answers on the site and by looking
at the documentation of e-tex, I am still wondering what is
exactly allowed in the various types of expressions,
i.e. \numexpr, \dimexpr and \glueexpr.

More precisely, I am interested in where one could place real
number division and multiplication. For example, is \dimexpr 12pt / 2.3pt\relax
or something similar allowed? It could be helpful if one could explain the
formal syntax of such expressions.

The four expression primitives (\numexpr, \dimexpr, \glueexpr, \muexpr) can be used anywhere that a register of the same type can be. This means that \numexpr produces integers, \dimexpr produces dimensions, \glueexpr produces glue expressions and \muexpr produces muskip values. As such, something like the example in the question

\the\dimexpr 12pt / 2.3pt\relax


cannot yield a real number as the result has to be a dimension. (As we'll see below, the result here is 6pt followed by .3pt\relax.) (I've added \the here so you can typeset the result rather than having to use it in an assignment. I'll do that throughout.)

In all cases, the formal syntax is that the expressions absorb tokens and carry out appropriate mathematics up to either a \relax or the first non-valid token in the input. This is easiest to see with \numexpr, which must produce an integer. So for example

\the\numexpr 2 + 2pt


will print 4pt, which is made up of the result of the expression (4) followed by input which cannot be part of the expression and thus terminates it. This is useful in comparisons, where the comparator will necessarily terminate the expression

\ifnum\numexpr ... > \numexpr ... \relax


In the case of \dimexpr and \glueexpr, the formal syntax requires that the input consists of a dimension (or glue value) followed by an optional multiplication factor, and not the other way around. The factor may itself be a numerical expression. Thus all of

\the\dimexpr 1pt + 1pt\relax
\the\dimexpr 1pt * 10\relax
\the\dimexpr (1pt + 1pt) / (1 + 1)\relax


are valid and give the expected results, but

\the\dimexpr 10 * 1pt\relax


is not valid and leads to an error.

Expressions may use the operators +, -, * and / along with parenthesis (/). Division takes place with rounding, and this applies to any number expressions inside dimension/glue expressions. Thus for example we get

\the\dimexpr 5pt * (3 / 2) \relax % 10pt
\the\dimexpr 5pt * (4 / 3) \relax % 5pt


In glue expressions the plus/minus parts do not need parenthesis to be affected by a factor as they are necessarily one entity. So for example

\the\glueexpr 5pt plus 1pt * 2 \relax


yields 10pt plus 2pt.

Within expressions, TeX will coerce other numerical types into the correct form in the same way as occurs when doing register assignment. So

\the\numexpr\dimexpr 1pt\relax\relax


will result in 65536, i.e. the value of 1pt converted to scaled points and then coerced into an integer. With \glueexpr here the stretch/shrink would be dropped. Going the other way, any \numexpr inside a \dimexpr or \glueexpr will need appropriate units providing

\the\dimexpr\numexpr 1 + 2\relax pt\relax