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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
SquareWave
  • See Also
    • TriangleWave
    • SawtoothWave
    • Sin
    • UnitStep
    • IntegerPart
    • Piecewise
    • UnitBox
    • HeavisidePi
  • Related Guides
    • Numerical Functions
    • Fourier Analysis
    • Mathematical Functions
    • Integral Transforms
    • Creating & Importing Signals
    • See Also
      • TriangleWave
      • SawtoothWave
      • Sin
      • UnitStep
      • IntegerPart
      • Piecewise
      • UnitBox
      • HeavisidePi
    • Related Guides
      • Numerical Functions
      • Fourier Analysis
      • Mathematical Functions
      • Integral Transforms
      • Creating & Importing Signals

SquareWave[x]

gives a square wave that alternates between and with unit period.

SquareWave[{y1,y2},x]

gives a square wave that alternates between y1 and y2 with unit period.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Numerical Evaluation  
Specific Values  
Visualization  
Function Properties  
Differentiation and Integration  
Series Expansions  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Related Guides
Related Links
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • TriangleWave
    • SawtoothWave
    • Sin
    • UnitStep
    • IntegerPart
    • Piecewise
    • UnitBox
    • HeavisidePi
  • Related Guides
    • Numerical Functions
    • Fourier Analysis
    • Mathematical Functions
    • Integral Transforms
    • Creating & Importing Signals
    • See Also
      • TriangleWave
      • SawtoothWave
      • Sin
      • UnitStep
      • IntegerPart
      • Piecewise
      • UnitBox
      • HeavisidePi
    • Related Guides
      • Numerical Functions
      • Fourier Analysis
      • Mathematical Functions
      • Integral Transforms
      • Creating & Importing Signals

SquareWave

SquareWave[x]

gives a square wave that alternates between and with unit period.

SquareWave[{y1,y2},x]

gives a square wave that alternates between y1 and y2 with unit period.

Details

  • SquareWave[{min,max},x] has value max for 0<x<1/2.
  • SquareWave automatically threads over lists. »

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Evaluate numerically:

Plot over a subset of the reals:

SquareWave is a piecewise function over finite domains:

Scope  (34)

Numerical Evaluation  (5)

Evaluate numerically:

Evaluate with custom heights:

SquareWave[x] always returns an exact result:

SquareWave[{min,max},x] generally tracks the precision of {min,max}:

Evaluate efficiently at high precision:

SquareWave threads over lists in the last argument:

Compute the elementwise values of an array using automatic threading:

Or compute the matrix SquareWave function using MatrixFunction:

Specific Values  (4)

Value at zero:

Values at fixed points:

Evaluate symbolically:

Find a value of x for which the SquareWave[{2,-3},x]=2:

Visualization  (4)

Plot the SquareWave function:

Visualize scaled SquareWave functions:

Visualize SquareWave functions with different maximum and minimum values:

Plot SquareWave in three dimensions:

Function Properties  (11)

Function domain of SquareWave:

It is restricted to real inputs:

Function range of SquareWave[x]:

SquareWave is periodic with period 1:

SquareWave is an odd function:

The area under one period is zero:

SquareWave is not an analytic function:

It has both singularities and discontinuities on the integers:

SquareWave[x] is neither nondecreasing nor nonincreasing:

SquareWave is not injective:

SquareWave[x] is not surjective:

SquareWave[x] is neither non-negative nor non-positive:

SquareWave is neither convex nor concave:

Differentiation and Integration  (5)

First derivative with respect to :

Derivative of the two-argument form with respect to :

If a==b, SquareWave[{a,b},x] is constant and its derivatives are zero everywhere:

Compute the indefinite integral using Integrate:

Verify the anti-derivative away from the singular points:

More integrals:

Series Expansions  (5)

FourierSeries:

Since SquareWave is odd, FourierTrigSeries gives a simpler result:

The two results are equivalent:

FourierCosSeries of a scaled SquareWave:

Taylor series at a smooth point:

Series expansion at a singular point:

Taylor expansion at a generic point:

Applications  (2)

Square wave sound sample:

Compute the Fourier decomposition:

Get the ninth-order partial sum:

At the points of discontinuity, the Gibbs phenomenon of overshooting is observed:

Properties & Relations  (4)

Use FunctionExpand to expand SquareWave in terms of elementary functions:

Use PiecewiseExpand to obtain a piecewise representation:

Integration:

Compute a finite number of Fourier coefficients:

Find the formula:

Use a FourierCoefficient directly:

Verify the consistency of formulas:

Possible Issues  (2)

SquareWave is only defined on real numbers:

SquareWave[x] is upper semicontinuous but not lower semicontinuous at the origin:

This differs from TriangleWave[x], which is both upper and lower semicontinuous, and thus continuous:

As well as SawtoothWave[x], which is only lower semicontinuous:

Visualize the three functions:

See Also

TriangleWave  SawtoothWave  Sin  UnitStep  IntegerPart  Piecewise  UnitBox  HeavisidePi

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Numerical Functions
  • ▪
  • Fourier Analysis
  • ▪
  • Mathematical Functions
  • ▪
  • Integral Transforms
  • ▪
  • Creating & Importing Signals

Related Links

  • MathWorld

History

Introduced in 2008 (7.0)

Wolfram Research (2008), SquareWave, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2008), SquareWave, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2008. "SquareWave." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2008). SquareWave. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_squarewave, author="Wolfram Research", title="{SquareWave}", year="2008", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_squarewave, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={SquareWave}, year={2008}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SquareWave.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

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