# CompositeUnit¶

class astropy.units.CompositeUnit(scale, bases, powers, decompose=False, decompose_bases=set(), _error_check=True)[source] [edit on github]

Create a composite unit using expressions of previously defined units.

Direct use of this class is not recommended. Instead use the factory function Unit and arithmetic operators to compose units.

Parameters: scale : number A scaling factor for the unit. bases : sequence of UnitBase A sequence of units this unit is composed of. powers : sequence of numbers A sequence of powers (in parallel with bases) for each of the base units.

Attributes Summary

 bases Return the bases of the composite unit. powers Return the powers of the composite unit. scale Return the scale of the composite unit.

Methods Summary

 decompose([bases]) Return a unit object composed of only irreducible units. is_unity() Returns True if the unit is unscaled and dimensionless.

Attributes Documentation

bases

Return the bases of the composite unit.

powers

Return the powers of the composite unit.

scale

Return the scale of the composite unit.

Methods Documentation

decompose(bases=set())[source] [edit on github]

Return a unit object composed of only irreducible units.

Parameters: bases : sequence of UnitBase, optional The bases to decompose into. When not provided, decomposes down to any irreducible units. When provided, the decomposed result will only contain the given units. This will raises a UnitsError if it’s not possible to do so. unit : CompositeUnit object New object containing only irreducible unit objects.
is_unity()[source] [edit on github]

Returns True if the unit is unscaled and dimensionless.