sqrt: Wasm text instruction

The sqrt instruction, short for square root, is used to get the square root of a number.

Try it

(module
  (import "console" "log" (func $log (param f32)))
  (func $main

    f32.const 2 ;; load a number onto the stack
    f32.sqrt ;; calculate the square root
    call $log ;; log the result

  )
  (start $main)
)
const url = "{%wasm-url%}";
await WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming(fetch(url), { console });

Syntax

value_type.sqrt
value_type

The type of value the instruction is being run on. The following types support sqrt:

  • f32
  • f64
  • v128 interpretations:
    • f32x4
    • f64x2
sqrt

The sqrt instruction. Must always be included after the value_type and a period (.).

Type

[input] -> [output]
input

The input value.

output

The output value. Successful results will only be returned for positive numbers; trying to calculate the square root of a negative number will yield an output value of NaN.

For a non-SIMD sqrt, these will be basic numeric values such as 3.5 or 9.

For a SIMD sqrt, these will be v128 value interpretations, for example f32x4 9 3.8 -16 101. Each lane of the output pushed to the stack contains the square root of the corresponding lane in the input value.

Binary encoding

Instruction Binary format Example text => binary
f32.sqrt 0x91 f32.sqrt => 0x91
f64.sqrt 0x9f f64.sqrt => 0x9f
f32x4.sqrt 0xfd 227:u32 f32x4.sqrt => 0xfd 0xe3 0x01
f64x2.sqrt 0xfd 239:u32 f64x2.sqrt => 0xfd 0xef 0x01

Examples

SIMD sqrt usage

In this example, we demonstrate using sqrt to calculate the square roots of all of a SIMD value's lane contents.

JavaScript

In our script, we grab a reference to a <p> element that we will output our result to, then define an object for import into Wasm containing a single function that writes a value to the output <p>. We then compile and instantiate our Wasm module using the WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming() method, importing the object in the process.

js
const outputElem = document.querySelector("p");

const obj = {
  output(val) {
    outputElem.textContent += val;
  },
};

WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming(fetch("{%wasm-url%}"), {
  obj,
});

Wasm

In our Wasm module, we first import the JavaScript output() function, making sure to declare that it has an f64 parameter. We then declare a SIMD f64x2 value and use f64x2.sqrt to calculate the square roots of all its lanes. Finally we extract the value stored in lane 1 of the output value using the extract_lane instruction, and output it to the DOM by calling the imported output() function.

wat
(module
  ;; Import output function
  (import "obj" "output" (func $output (param f64)))

  (func $main
    ;; load a SIMD value onto the stack
    v128.const f64x2 811.5 9

    f64x2.sqrt ;; output all square roots in a new f64x2 value
    f64x2.extract_lane 0 ;; Extract a value from the result
    call $output
  )

  (start $main)
)

Result

The output is as follows:

28.48683906648823 is output because this is the square root of the value in lane 1 of the input value (811.5).