Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) (Pro edition only)

Open Table or Figure or Plot with initial data and use Processing -> Fast Fourier Transform menu item to perform FFT.

Fast Fourier transform algorithm computes discrete Fourier transform exactly and is used to considerably speed up the calculations.
Note that FFT is not an approximate method of calculation.

MagicPlot uses the algorithm of FFT that does not necessarily require the number of points N to be an integer power of 2, though in case of power of 2 evaluation time of the FFT algorithm is less. MagicPlot uses jfftpack library (a Java version of fftpack).

FFT of table columns dialog	FFT of curves dialog

Formulas

Discrete Fourier Transform Formulas

By default MagicPlot uses 'electrical engineering' convention to set the sign of the exponential phase factor of FFT: Forwart transform is computed using factor -1. Most scientific applications use factor -1 in forward transform as MagicPlot does by default. But note, that the sign of exponential phase factor in Numerical Receipts in C, 2nd edition, p. 503 in forward transform is +1.

Factor −1 (Default)	Factor +1 (Scientific)
1/N in forward transform	Forward Transform (Signal->Spectrum)	Inverse Transform (Spectrum->Signal)	Forward Transform (Signal->Spectrum)	Inverse Transform (Spectrum->Signal)
Checked (Default)
Unchecked

Here cn are complex signal components and Cn are complex spectrum components, n = 1...N.

The only difference is in the sign of exponential phase factor and 1/N multiplier.

Note: If you expect to get the original data when doing a inverse FFT of forward FFT set the Normalize Forward Transform and Center Zero Frequency check boxes identically for forward and inverse transforms.

Amplitude and Phase Columns Formulas

Because of using atan2 function the phase is unwrapped and is in range (−π, π].

Sampling Column Formulas

Sampling column contains frequency samples if forward transform is performed and time samples in case of inverse transform.

Center zero frequency	Formula	Sampling Column Values
Unchecked
Checked

Here Δt is given sampling interval of initial data (time for FFT and frequency for IFFT), n = 1...N.

Missing Values in the Original Data

Fourier transform implies that the original samples are uniformly distributed in time (for forward transform) or frequency (for inverse transform).

Missing values in the middle or in beginning of original data columns are treated as zeros, the result of Fourier transform may be incorrect.

Missing values in the end of the column are ignored.

Parameters

Sampling Interval	Sampling interval of original data Δt is used to compute the data in resulting sampling column. If Get from box is set, MagicPlot will calculate sampling interval as difference between two beginning values from given column. You can set sampling interval manually by checking Set manually box. Note that using of discrete Fourier transform implies that the samples in your original data are equally spaced in time/frequency, i.e. the sampling interval is constant. If the sampling interval is varying or real and/or imaginary data contains empty cells in the middle, the result of discrete Fourier transform will be incorrect.
Real, Imaginary	Columns with real and imaginary components of data. If your data is only real, select <all zeros> imaginary item
Forward / Inverse	Transform direction (here Inverse equals to Backward)
1/N in forward transform	Also referred as 'Normalize' in some applications. Divide forward transform result by number of points N (see formulas table). If your original data is real, you may want to additionally multiply the result by 2 to get the true amplitudes of real signal
Center zero frequency	If selected, after forward Fourier transform the two parts of spectrum will be rearranged so that the lower frequency components are in the center; the opposite rearrangement of spectrum will be done before inverse transform if any.