Summary
This paper discusses the problems associated with the symbolic treatment of functional equations and presents a Mathematica package for the solution of real functional equations of real variables. The package includes a minimal basic database which contains a reduced set of functional equations with its four components: equation, domain, class and the corresponding solution. The word minimal is used in the sense that any equation that is solvable by the system using non-searching methods is excluded from the database. The package incorporates a searching algorithm which can solve functional equations independently of their notation and their algebraic representation. Not only general solutions but particular and candidate solutions are dealt with. This implies a careful analysis of domains and classes. The package includes some methods for solving functional equations, which are used when the input functional equations are not found in the database. Some methods have been implemented internally and some are in an external package. Finally, some examples illustrate the use of the package.
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