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## CGAL::Filtered_exact<CT, ET>

### Definition

The class Filtered_exact<CT,ET> is a wrapper type for the number type CT, with the difference that all predicates are specialized such that they are guaranteed to be exact. Speed is achieved via a filtering scheme using interval arithmetic (see Section ). Here are the necessary requirements:

- CT is the construction and storage type. The only data member of the class Filtered_exact<CT,ET> is the value of type CT. All arithmetic operations performed outside of the predicates will be executed with this number type. You can disallow these operations compiling with the flag CGAL_DENY_INEXACT_OPERATIONS_ON_FILTER (it allows you to spot the inexact operations that should be incorporated in the predicates). The arithmetic operations called from inside the predicates are always computed exactly.
- The ET type must be able to compute exactly the operations involved in the predicates called.
- A to_interval(CT) function must be provided, that returns an interval containing the value of the argument of type CT, see Section .
- A convert_to<ET>(CT) function must also be provided, that returns a number of type ET representing exactly the argument of type CT. It's a conversion function that is used for the exact computation, when the filter fails. This conversion has to be done exactly to ensure robustness.

#include <CGAL/Filtered_exact.h>

### Is Model for the Concept

FieldNumberType

### Operations

The following member functions are used to access the numerical value for the different number types:

CT | ntvar.value () | returns the wrapped value.
ET | ntvar.exact () | returns the converted value to ET.
Interval_nt_advanced
| ntvar.interval () | returns the converted value to Interval_nt_advanced.

This type actually has additional parameters for experimental features. They will be documented when they will be considered stable, in a next release.

### Example

You might use at the beginning of your program a typedef as follows:

        #include<CGAL/Filtered_exact.h>
        #include<CGAL/leda_real.h>
        #include<CGAL/double.h>
        typedef Filtered_exact<double, leda_real> NT;

Or if you are sure that the predicates involved do not use divisions nor square roots:

        #include<CGAL/Filtered_exact.h>
        #include<CGAL/Gmpz.h>
        #include<CGAL/int.h>
        typedef Filtered_exact<int, Gmpz> NT;

And if you know that the double variables contain integer values, you can use:

        #include<CGAL/Filtered_exact.h>
        #include<CGAL/Gmpz.h>
        #include<CGAL/double.h>
        typedef Filtered_exact<double, Gmpz> NT;

As a general rule, we advise the use of Filtered_exact<double, leda_real>.

### Implementation

The template definition of the low level predicates of CGAL are overloaded for the type Filtered_exact<CT,ET>.

For each predicate file, the overloaded code is generated automatically by the PERL script (scripts/filtered_predicates_generator.pl) that you can use for your own predicates. This script parses the template functions and generates the overloaded code the following way:

- convert the entries to intervals using to_interval(CT), via the interval() member function,
- call the original template function with the type Interval_nt_advanced,
- if no exception is thrown, return the value,
- if an exception is thrown (the filter failed), convert the original entries using convert_to<ET>(CT), using the exact() member function,
- and call the original template function with the type ET.

### Example

The low level template predicates of CGAL are in files named CGAL/predicates/kernel_ftC2.h (resp. ftC3), the script is used to produce the files CGAL/Arithmetic_filter/predicates/kernel_ftC2.h (resp. ftC3).

At the moment, only the predicates of the Cartesian and Simple_cartesian kernels are supported, as well as the power tests used by the regular triangulations.

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The CGAL Project . Tue, December 21, 2004 .