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Apache Commons Math – Mathematics and Statistics Components

Commons Math is a library of lightweight, self-contained mathematics and statistics components addressing the most common problems not available in the Java programming language or Commons Lang.

As quoted from the website, Apache Commons Math is made up of a small set of math/stat utilities addressing some of the programming problems like the ones in the list below.

  • Computing means, variances and other summary statistics for a list of numbers
  • Fitting a line to a set of data points using linear regression
  • Finding a smooth curve that passes through a collection of points (interpolation)
  • Fitting a parametric model to a set of measurements using least-squares methods
  • Solving equations involving real-valued functions (i.e. root-finding)
  • Solving systems of linear equations
  • Solving Ordinary Differential Equations
  • Minimizing multi-dimensional functions
  • Generating random numbers with more restrictions (e.g distribution, range) than what is possible using the JDK
  • Generating random samples and/or datasets that are “like” the data in an input file
  • Performing statistical significance tests
  • Miscellaneous mathematical functions such as factorials, binomial coefficients and “special functions” (e.g. gamma, beta functions)

Commons Math is divided into fourteen subpackages, based on functionality provided.

  1. org.apache.commons.math.stat – statistics, statistical tests
  2. org.apache.commons.math.analysis – rootfinding and interpolation
  3. org.apache.commons.math.random – random numbers, strings and data generation
  4. org.apache.commons.math.special – special functions (Gamma, Beta)
  5. org.apache.commons.math.linear – matrices, solving linear systems
  6. org.apache.commons.math.util – common math/stat functions extending java.lang.Math
  7. org.apache.commons.math.complex – complex numbers
  8. org.apache.commons.math.distribution – probability distributions
  9. org.apache.commons.math.fraction – rational numbers
  10. org.apache.commons.math.transform – transform methods (Fast Fourier)
  11. org.apache.commons.math.geometry – 3D geometry (vectors and rotations)
  12. org.apache.commons.math.estimation – parametric estimation problems
  13. org.apache.commons.math.optimization – multi-dimensional functions minimization
  14. org.apache.commons.math.ode – Ordinary Differential Equations integration


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