# How to know if a System is under FD or CS¶

All Systems (Components and Groups) have two flags that indicate whether the System is running under finite difference or complex step. The under_finite_difference flag is True if the System is being finite differenced and the under_complex_step flag is True if the System is being complex stepped.

## Usage¶

First we’ll show how to detect when a component is being finite differenced:

import numpy as np

import openmdao.api as om

class MyFDPartialComp(om.ExplicitComponent):
def setup(self):
self.num_fd_computes = 0

def setup_partials(self):
self.declare_partials('y', 'x', method='fd')

def compute(self, inputs, outputs):
outputs['y'] = 1.5 * inputs['x']
if self.under_finite_difference:
self.num_fd_computes += 1
print(f"{self.pathname} is being finite differenced!")

p = om.Problem()

p.setup()
p.run_model()

# there shouldn't be any finite difference computes yet
print("Num fd calls = ", p.model.comp.num_fd_computes)

totals = p.compute_totals(['comp.y'], ['comp.x'])

# since we're doing forward difference, there should be 1 call to compute under fd
print("Num fd calls =", p.model.comp.num_fd_computes)

Num fd calls =  0
comp is being finite differenced!
Num fd calls = 1


Now we’ll do the same thing for a complex stepped component:

import numpy as np

import openmdao.api as om

class MyCSPartialComp(om.ExplicitComponent):
def setup(self):
self.num_cs_computes = 0

def setup_partials(self):
self.declare_partials('y', 'x', method='cs')

def compute(self, inputs, outputs):
outputs['y'] = 1.5 * inputs['x']
if self.under_complex_step:
self.num_cs_computes += 1
print(f"{self.pathname} is being complex stepped!")

p = om.Problem()

p.setup()
p.run_model()

# there shouldn't be any complex step computes yet
print("Num cs calls =", p.model.comp.num_cs_computes)

totals = p.compute_totals(['comp.y'], ['comp.x'])

# there should be 1 call to compute under cs
print("Num cs calls =", p.model.comp.num_cs_computes)

Num cs calls = 0
comp is being complex stepped!
Num cs calls = 1