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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
TriangleWave
  • See Also
    • SawtoothWave
    • SquareWave
    • Piecewise
    • Sin
    • UnitTriangle
    • HeavisideLambda
  • Related Guides
    • Mathematical Functions
    • Numerical Functions
    • Fourier Analysis
    • Integral Transforms
    • See Also
      • SawtoothWave
      • SquareWave
      • Piecewise
      • Sin
      • UnitTriangle
      • HeavisideLambda
    • Related Guides
      • Mathematical Functions
      • Numerical Functions
      • Fourier Analysis
      • Integral Transforms

TriangleWave[x]

gives a triangle wave that varies between and with unit period.

TriangleWave[{min,max},x]

gives a triangle wave that varies between min and max 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
    • SawtoothWave
    • SquareWave
    • Piecewise
    • Sin
    • UnitTriangle
    • HeavisideLambda
  • Related Guides
    • Mathematical Functions
    • Numerical Functions
    • Fourier Analysis
    • Integral Transforms
    • See Also
      • SawtoothWave
      • SquareWave
      • Piecewise
      • Sin
      • UnitTriangle
      • HeavisideLambda
    • Related Guides
      • Mathematical Functions
      • Numerical Functions
      • Fourier Analysis
      • Integral Transforms

TriangleWave

TriangleWave[x]

gives a triangle wave that varies between and with unit period.

TriangleWave[{min,max},x]

gives a triangle wave that varies between min and max with unit period.

Details

  • TriangleWave[x] is symmetric about , and has value at .
  • TriangleWave automatically threads over lists. »

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Evaluate numerically:

Plot over a subset of the reals:

TriangleWave is a piecewise function over finite domains:

Scope  (34)

Numerical Evaluation  (5)

Evaluate numerically:

Evaluate to high precision:

The precision of the output tracks the precision of the input:

Evaluate efficiently at high precision:

TriangleWave threads over lists in the last argument:

Compute the elementwise values of an array using automatic threading:

Or compute the matrix TriangleWave function using MatrixFunction:

Specific Values  (4)

Value at zero:

Values of TriangleWave at fixed points:

Evaluate symbolically:

Find a value of for which the TriangleWave[x]=0.5:

Visualization  (4)

Plot the TriangleWave function:

Visualize scaled TriangleWave functions:

Visualize TriangleWave functions with different maximum and minimum values:

Plot TriangleWave in three dimensions:

Function Properties  (11)

Function domain of TriangleWave:

It is restricted to real inputs:

Function range of TriangleWave[x]:

TriangleWave is periodic with period 1:

TriangleWave is an odd function:

The area under one period is zero:

TriangleWave is not an analytic function because it is singular at the half-integers:

However, it is continuous:

TriangleWave[x] is neither nondecreasing nor nonincreasing:

TriangleWave is not injective:

TriangleWave[x] is not surjective:

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

TriangleWave is neither convex nor concave:

Differentiation and Integration  (5)

First derivative with respect to :

Derivative of the two-argument form with respect to :

The second (and higher) derivatives are zero except at points where the derivative does not exist:

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

Integrals over finite domains:

Series Expansions  (5)

FourierSeries:

Since TriangleWave is odd, FourierTrigSeries gives a simpler result:

The two results are equivalent:

FourierCosSeries of a scaled TriangleWave:

Maclaurin series:

Series expansion at a singular point:

Taylor expansion at a generic point:

Applications  (2)

Coefficients of Fourier series:

Explicit Fourier series approximant:

Plot the residual term:

Triangle wave sound sample:

Properties & Relations  (3)

Use FunctionExpand to expand TriangleWave in terms of elementary functions:

Use PiecewiseExpand to obtain piecewise representation on an interval:

TriangleWave[x] is both upper and lower semicontinuous, and thus continuous, at the origin:

This is different from SquareWave[x], which is only upper semicontinuous:

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

Visualize the three functions:

Possible Issues  (1)

TriangleWave is undefined for complex numbers:

See Also

SawtoothWave  SquareWave  Piecewise  Sin  UnitTriangle  HeavisideLambda

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Mathematical Functions
  • ▪
  • Numerical Functions
  • ▪
  • Fourier Analysis
  • ▪
  • Integral Transforms

Related Links

  • MathWorld

History

Introduced in 2008 (7.0)

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

Text

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

CMS

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

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_trianglewave, author="Wolfram Research", title="{TriangleWave}", year="2008", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TriangleWave.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_trianglewave, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={TriangleWave}, year={2008}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TriangleWave.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

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