You could use the following tranformation.
Assumption: the parse tree of the polynomial is in the order of increasing exponents -- if this assumption does not hold, the partial polynomes can be swapped around in the parse tree to make the assumption hold
Assumption: the parse tree holds exponential forms of the variable (e.g. x^2
) instead of multiplicational forms (e.g. x*x
), except for x^0
-- simple transformations can convert between the two in either direction
Assumption: the coefficients (if constant) in the polynom are non-zero -- this is to avoid having to deal with (a+0*x+c*x^2
-> a+x(cx)
instead of a+cx^2
)
Parse tree for a+b*x^1+c*x^2+d*x^3
:
.+..
/ \
a ...+....
/ \
* .+..
/ \ / \
b ^ * *
/ \ / \ / \
x 1 c ^ d ^
/ \ / \
x 2 x 3
Transformation to a+x(b+c*x^1+d*x^2)
+
/ \
a *
/ \
x +
/ \
b .+..
/ \
* *
/ \ / \
c ^ d ^
/ \ / \
x 1 x 2
Transformation to a+x(b+x(c+d*x^1))
+
/ \
a *
/ \
x +
/ \
b *
/ \
x +
/ \
c *
/ \
d ^
/ \
x 1
Then finally (a+x(b+x(c+d*x))
):
+
/ \
a *
/ \
x +
/ \
b *
/ \
x +
/ \
c *
/ \
d x
The common transformation is:
. -> .
. -> .
. -> .
+ -> .*..
/ \ -> / \
* N(k+1) -> ^ +
/ \ -> / \ / \
ck ^ -> x k ck N'(k+1)
/ \ ->
x k ->
where N'(k+1)
is the same subtree as N(k+1)
with each exponent j
replaced with j-k
(if k
is 1, replace the x^k
subtree with x
)
The algorithm is then applied again(*) on N'(k+1)
until its root is *
(instead of +
), indicating that the final partial polynom is reached. If the final exponent is 1, replace the exponential part with x
(x^1
-> x
)
(*) here is the recursion part
Note: if you keep track of the exponent changes in the N(k+1)
subtrees cumulatively, you can put the last two steps together to transform N(k+1)
recursively in one go
Note: If you want to allow negative exponents, then either
a) extract the highest negative exponent as the first term:
a*x^-2 + b*x^-1 + c + d*x + e*x^2 -> x^-2(a+b*x+c*x^2+d*x^3+d*x^4)
and apply the above transformation
or b) separate the positive and negative exponential parts of the equation and appply the above transformation on each separately (you will need to "flip" the operands for the negative-exponent side and replace multiplication with division):
a*x^-2 + b*x^-1 + c + d*x + e*x^2 -> [a+x^-2 + b*x-1] + [c + d*x + e*x^2] ->
-> [(a/x + b)/x] + [c+x(d+ex)]
this approach seems more complicated than a)