COS()

nikolaspoczekaj's avatar
Published Jun 15, 2023
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The SQL function COS() calculates the cosine of a given angle, expressed in radians.

Syntax

SELECT COS(angle);

angle is the value, for which the cosine is calculated. The cosine value returned will be between -1 and 1.

Note: The COS() function uses radians as its input, not degrees. To convert degrees to radians, the degree value can be multiplied by π/180.

Example

In the following example this data is given in the table angles:

id angle_in_degrees
1 10
2 45
3 180

The COS() function is used to calculate the cosine as the cos_value:

SELECT id, angle_in_degrees, COS(angle_in_degrees * (PI()/180)) AS cos_value
FROM angles;

The output will be:

id angle_in_degrees cos_value
1 10 0.984807753012208
2 45 0.7071067811865476
3 180 -1

Note: For the use of this method with SQL databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, or SQL Server, refer to their respective documentation for more details on the COS() function implementation and compatibility.

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