In mathematics, divided differences is an algorithm, historically used for computing tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions.^{[citation needed]} Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical calculator, was designed to use this algorithm in its operation.

Divided differences is a recursive division process. Given a sequence of data points ${\displaystyle (x_{0},y_{0}),\ldots ,(x_{n},y_{n})}$, the method calculates the coefficients of the interpolation polynomial of these points in the Newton form.

It is sometimes denoted by a delta with a bar: ${\displaystyle {\text{△}}\!\!\!|\,\,}$ or ${\displaystyle {\text{◿}}\!{\text{◺}}}$.

Given n + 1 data points $${\displaystyle (x_{0},y_{0}),\ldots ,(x_{n},y_{n})}$$ where the ${\displaystyle x_{k}}$ are assumed to be pairwise distinct, the forward divided differences are defined as: $${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\mathopen {[}}y_{k}]&:=y_{k},&&k\in \{0,\ldots ,n\}\\{\mathopen {[}}y_{k},\ldots ,y_{k+j}]&:={\frac {[y_{k+1},\ldots ,y_{k+j}]-[y_{k},\ldots ,y_{k+j-1}]}{x_{k+j}-x_{k}}},&&k\in \{0,\ldots ,n-j\},\ j\in \{1,\ldots ,n\}.\end{aligned}}}$$

To make the recursive process of computation clearer, the divided differences can be put in tabular form, where the columns correspond to the value of j above, and each entry in the table is computed from the difference of the entries to its immediate lower left and to its immediate upper left, divided by a difference of corresponding x-values: $${\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}x_{0}&y_{0}=[y_{0}]&&&\\&&[y_{0},y_{1}]&&\\x_{1}&y_{1}=[y_{1}]&&[y_{0},y_{1},y_{2}]&\\&&[y_{1},y_{2}]&&[y_{0},y_{1},y_{2},y_{3}]\\x_{2}&y_{2}=[y_{2}]&&[y_{1},y_{2},y_{3}]&\\&&[y_{2},y_{3}]&&\\x_{3}&y_{3}=[y_{3}]&&&\\\end{matrix}}}$$

Note that the divided difference ${\displaystyle [y_{k},\ldots ,y_{k+j}]}$ depends on the values ${\displaystyle x_{k},\ldots ,x_{k+j}}$ and ${\displaystyle y_{k},\ldots ,y_{k+j}}$, but the notation hides the dependency on the x-values. If the data points are given by a function f, $${\displaystyle (x_{0},y_{0}),\ldots ,(x_{k},y_{n})=(x_{0},f(x_{0})),\ldots ,(x_{n},f(x_{n}))}$$ one sometimes writes the divided difference in the notation $${\displaystyle f[x_{k},\ldots ,x_{k+j}]\ {\stackrel {\text{def}}{=}}\ [f(x_{k}),\ldots ,f(x_{k+j})]=[y_{k},\ldots ,y_{k+j}].}$$Other notations for the divided difference of the function ƒ on the nodes x₀, ..., x_n are: $${\displaystyle f[x_{k},\ldots ,x_{k+j}]={\mathopen {[}}x_{0},\ldots ,x_{n}]f={\mathopen {[}}x_{0},\ldots ,x_{n};f]=D[x_{0},\ldots ,x_{n}]f.}$$

Divided differences for ${\displaystyle k=0}$ and the first few values of ${\displaystyle j}$: $${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\mathopen {[}}y_{0}]&=y_{0}\\{\mathopen {[}}y_{0},y_{1}]&={\frac {y_{1}-y_{0}}{x_{1}-x_{0}}}\\{\mathopen {[}}y_{0},y_{1},y_{2}]&={\frac {{\mathopen {[}}y_{1},y_{2}]-{\mathopen {[}}y_{0},y_{1}]}{x_{2}-x_{0}}}={\frac {{\frac {y_{2}-y_{1}}{x_{2}-x_{1}}}-{\frac {y_{1}-y_{0}}{x_{1}-x_{0}}}}{x_{2}-x_{0}}}={\frac {y_{2}-y_{1}}{(x_{2}-x_{1})(x_{2}-x_{0})}}-{\frac {y_{1}-y_{0}}{(x_{1}-x_{0})(x_{2}-x_{0})}}\\{\mathopen {[}}y_{0},y_{1},y_{2},y_{3}]&={\frac {{\mathopen {[}}y_{1},y_{2},y_{3}]-{\mathopen {[}}y_{0},y_{1},y_{2}]}{x_{3}-x_{0}}}\end{aligned}}}$$

Thus, the table corresponding to these terms upto two columns has the following form: $${\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}x_{0}&y_{0}&&\\&&{y_{1}-y_{0} \over x_{1}-x_{0}}&\\x_{1}&y_{1}&&{{y_{2}-y_{1} \over x_{2}-x_{1}}-{y_{1}-y_{0} \over x_{1}-x_{0}} \over x_{2}-x_{0}}\\&&{y_{2}-y_{1} \over x_{2}-x_{1}}&\\x_{2}&y_{2}&&\vdots \\&&\vdots &\\\vdots &&&\vdots \\&&\vdots &\\x_{n}&y_{n}&&\\\end{matrix}}}$$