The content of a univariate integer polynomial is the GCD of its coefficients.
The content of a multivariate polynomial a with respect to some of its variable(s) x is the GCD of its coefficients, considering a as a polynomial in the variable(s) x with any remaining variables being part of the coefficient ring. In the example below, a is viewed as a polynomial in x with coefficients that are polynomials in y. The example after that takes the same polynomial, but views it as a multivariate polynomial in x and y with integer coefficients.
The following example computes not just the content, but also the primitive part.
In this example, you can see the effect of calling normal, which happens because the polynomial doesn't have purely numeric coefficients (the coefficient of x is ).
Alternatively, if a is included as an indeterminate, the denominator is included in the primpart rather than the content:
Floating point coefficients are considered indivisible with respect to each other -- even if they are equal. As a consequence, the content in the following example is 1.
In the presence of floating-point numbers, other content is still detected. For example, the factor u below.
Non-numeric, nonpolynomial coefficients are also considered indivisible with respect to each other. For example, you could consider to be a common divisor between the two coefficients and , but they are considered indivisible with respect to each other for this command and the content is considered to be 1.
The primpart command computes just the primitive part of the expression.