This International Standard defines the specifications of three generic packages of scalar, vector and matrix operations called GENERIC_COMPLEX_TYPES, GENERIC_REAL_ARRAYS and GENERIC_COMPLEX_ARRAYS, the specification of a package of related exceptions called ARRAY_EXCEPTIONS and the specification of generic package of complex input and output operations called COMPLEX_IO. A package body is not required for ARRAY_EXCEPTIONS; bodies of the other packages are not provided by this International Standard.

The specifications of non-generic packages called COMPLEX_TYPES, REAL_ARRAYS and COMPLEX_ARRAYS are also defined, together with those of analogous packages for other precisions. This International Standard does not provide the bodies of these packages.

This International Standard specifies certain fundamental scalar, vector and matrix arithmetic operations for real, imaginary and complex numbers. They were chosen because of their utility in various application areas; moreover, they are needed to support a generic package for complex elementary functions.

This International Standard is applicable to programming environments conforming to ISO/IEC 8652.