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# Function simplify

Simplify an expression tree.

A list of rules are applied to an expression, repeating over the list until
no further changes are made.
It's possible to pass a custom set of rules to the function as second
argument. A rule can be specified as an object, string, or function:

    const rules = [
      { l: 'n1*n3 + n2*n3', r: '(n1+n2)*n3' },
      'n1*n3 + n2*n3 -> (n1+n2)*n3',
      function (node) {
        // ... return a new node or return the node unchanged
        return node
      }
    ]

String and object rules consist of a left and right pattern. The left is
used to match against the expression and the right determines what matches
are replaced with. The main difference between a pattern and a normal
expression is that variables starting with the following characters are
interpreted as wildcards:

- 'n' - matches any Node
- 'c' - matches any ConstantNode
- 'v' - matches any Node that is not a ConstantNode

The default list of rules is exposed on the function as `simplify.rules`
and can be used as a basis to built a set of custom rules.

For more details on the theory, see:

- [Strategies for simplifying math expressions (Stackoverflow)](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7540227/strategies-for-simplifying-math-expressions)
- [Symbolic computation - Simplification (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_computation#Simplification)

 An optional `options` argument can be passed as last argument of `simplify`.
 There is currently one option available: `exactFractions`, a boolean which
 is `true` by default.


## Syntax

```js
simplify(expr)
simplify(expr, rules)
simplify(expr, rules)
simplify(expr, rules, scope)
simplify(expr, rules, scope, options)
simplify(expr, scope)
simplify(expr, scope, options)
```

### Parameters

Parameter | Type | Description
--------- | ---- | -----------
`expr` | Node &#124; string |  The expression to be simplified
`rules` | Array&lt;{l:string, r: string} &#124; string &#124; function&gt; |  Optional list with custom rules

### Returns

Type | Description
---- | -----------
Node | Returns the simplified form of `expr`


## Examples

```js
math.simplify('2 * 1 * x ^ (2 - 1)')      // Node "2 * x"
math.simplify('2 * 3 * x', {x: 4})        // Node "24"
const f = math.parse('2 * 1 * x ^ (2 - 1)')
math.simplify(f)                          // Node "2 * x"
math.simplify('0.4 * x', {}, {exactFractions: true})  // Node "x * 2 / 5"
math.simplify('0.4 * x', {}, {exactFractions: false}) // Node "0.4 * x"
```


## See also

[derivative](derivative.md),
[parse](parse.md),
[evaluate](evaluate.md),
[rationalize](rationalize.md)
