Term: ATAN2

Definition:
The Oracle ATAN2 function returns the arc tangent of n1 and n2. The argument n1 can be in an unbounded range and returns a value in the range of -pi to pi, depending on the signs of n1 and n2, expressed in radians. ATAN2(n1,n2) is the same as ATAN2(n1/n2).

This function takes arguments in the form of any numeric datatype (or any non-numeric datatype that can be implicitly converted to a numeric datatype). If any argument is a BINARY_FLOAT or a BINARY_DOUBLE datatype, then the function returns a BINARY_DOUBLE. Otherwise the function returns a NUMBER.

The following example returns the arc tangent of .6 and .4:

SELECT ATAN2(.6, .6) "arc_tangent2" FROM DUAL;