Question: Is there a way to easily compute [the erf function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution#Cumulative_distribution) (or the cumulative distribution function of the normal law) in LaTeX?

Currently, I use `pgf` to make computation, but I did not find a way to compute erf using `pgf`.

I would be happy to use any package that is available to compute erf, or any custom solution to compute that function.

Answer: 
For precise values, I recommend externalizing the calculation, here `gnuplot` is used.

Code (needs `--shell-escape` enabled)
-------------------------------------

```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,pgfmath,pgffor}
\makeatletter
\def\qrr@split@result#1 #2\@qrr@split@result{\edef\erfInput{#1}\edef\erfResult{#2}}
\newcommand*{\gnuplotErf}[2][\jobname.eval]{%
    \immediate\write18{gnuplot -e "set print '#1'; print #2, erf(#2);"}%
    \everyeof{\noexpand}
    \edef\qrr@temp{\@@input #1 }%
    \expandafter\qrr@split@result\qrr@temp\@qrr@split@result
}
\makeatother
\DeclareMathOperator{\erf}{erf}
\begin{document}
\foreach \x in {-50,...,50}{%
\pgfmathparse{\x/50}%
\gnuplotErf{\x/50.}%
$ x = \pgfmathresult = \erfInput, \erf(x) = \erfResult$\par
}
\end{document}

```

Output
------

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hThhI.png)
Based on [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/457805/1195799).

```
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\makeatletter
\pgfmathdeclarefunction{erf}{1}{%
  \begingroup
    \pgfmathparse{#1 > 0 ? 1 : -1}%
    \edef\sign{\pgfmathresult}%
    \pgfmathparse{abs(#1)}%
    \edef\x{\pgfmathresult}%
    \pgfmathparse{1/(1+0.3275911*\x)}%
    \edef\t{\pgfmathresult}%
    \pgfmathparse{%
      1 - (((((1.061405429*\t -1.453152027)*\t) + 1.421413741)*\t 
      -0.284496736)*\t + 0.254829592)*\t*exp(-(\x*\x))}%
    \edef\y{\pgfmathresult}%
    \pgfmathparse{(\sign)*\y}%
    \pgfmath@smuggleone\pgfmathresult%
  \endgroup
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[yscale = 3]
  \draw[very thick,->] (-5,0) -- node[at end,below] {$x$}(5,0);
  \draw[very thick,->] (0,-1) -- node[below left] {$0$} node[at end,
  left] {$erf(x)$} (0,1);
  \draw[red,thick] plot[domain=-5:5,samples=200] (\x,{erf(\x)});
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

```

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VkEZI.png)