sin

sin is most commonly used in observability to encode time-of-day or other periodic signals as cyclic coordinates. When combined with cos, it produces a two-dimensional representation of periodic phenomena that preserves circular distance. For example, you can encode hour-of-day cyclically so that hour 23 and hour 0 are treated as adjacent.

Usage#

Syntax#

sin(x)

Parameters#

Name	Type	Required	Description
`x`	real	Yes	The angle in radians.

Returns#

The sine of x, a real number in the range [-1, 1].

Example#

Use sin to compute the sine of an angle in radians.

Query

print result = sin(pi() / 2)

Run in Playground

Output

result
1

cos: Returns the cosine. Use sin and cos together to produce a two-dimensional cyclic encoding of angles.
tan: Returns the tangent. Use it when you need the ratio of sine to cosine.
asin: Returns the arc sine. Use it as the inverse of sin.
pi: Returns the constant π. Use it to construct radian values before calling sin.
radians: Converts degrees to radians. Use it to prepare degree inputs before calling sin.

Other query languages#

Splunk SPL users

In Splunk SPL, sin() takes an angle in radians and returns the sine, just like APL.

Splunk example

| eval sin_val = sin(angle_rad)

APL equivalent

['sample-http-logs']
| extend sin_val = sin(angle_rad)

ANSI SQL users

In ANSI SQL, SIN() is a standard function with identical semantics.

SQL example

SELECT SIN(angle_rad) AS sin_val FROM logs