---
title: Diagonal (v0.46)
description: API reference for qiskit.circuit.library.Diagonal in qiskit v0.46
source: https://eu-de.quantum.cloud.ibm.com/docs/en/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.library.Diagonal
---

# Diagonal

*class* `qiskit.circuit.library.Diagonal(diag)`

[GitHub](https://github.com/qiskit/qiskit/tree/stable/0.46/qiskit/circuit/library/generalized_gates/diagonal.py)

Bases: [`QuantumCircuit`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.QuantumCircuit "qiskit.circuit.quantumcircuit.QuantumCircuit")

Diagonal circuit.

Circuit symbol:

```python
     ┌───────────┐
q_0: ┤0          ├
     │           │
q_1: ┤1 Diagonal ├
     │           │
q_2: ┤2          ├
     └───────────┘
```

Matrix form:

$$
\text{DiagonalGate}\ q_0, q_1, .., q_{n-1} =
\begin{pmatrix}
D[0]    & 0         & \dots     & 0 \\
0       & D[1]      & \dots     & 0 \\
\vdots  & \vdots    & \ddots    & 0 \\
0       & 0         & \dots     & D[n-1]
\end{pmatrix}


$$

Diagonal gates are useful as representations of Boolean functions, as they can map from $\{0,1\}^{2^n}$ to $\{0,1\}^{2^n}$ space. For example a phase oracle can be seen as a diagonal gate with $\{1, -1\}$ on the diagonals. Such an oracle will induce a $+1$ or :math\`-1\` phase on the amplitude of any corresponding basis state.

Diagonal gates appear in many classically hard oracular problems such as Forrelation or Hidden Shift circuits.

Diagonal gates are represented and simulated more efficiently than a dense $2^n \times 2^n$ unitary matrix.

The reference implementation is via the method described in Theorem 7 of \[1]. The code is based on Emanuel Malvetti’s semester thesis at ETH in 2018, supervised by Raban Iten and Prof. Renato Renner.

**Reference:**

\[1] Shende et al., Synthesis of Quantum Logic Circuits, 2009 [arXiv:0406176](https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0406176.pdf)

**Parameters**

**diag** (*Sequence\[*[*complex*](https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#complex)*]*) – List of the $2^k$ diagonal entries (for a diagonal gate on $k$ qubits).

**Raises**

[**CircuitError**](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/circuit#qiskit.circuit.CircuitError "qiskit.circuit.CircuitError") – if the list of the diagonal entries or the qubit list is in bad format; if the number of diagonal entries is not $2^k$, where $k$ denotes the number of qubits.

## Attributes

### ancillas

Returns a list of ancilla bits in the order that the registers were added.

### calibrations

Return calibration dictionary.

The custom pulse definition of a given gate is of the form `{'gate_name': {(qubits, params): schedule}}`

### clbits

Returns a list of classical bits in the order that the registers were added.

### data

Return the circuit data (instructions and context).

**Returns**

a list-like object containing the [`CircuitInstruction`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.CircuitInstruction "qiskit.circuit.CircuitInstruction")s for each instruction.

**Return type**

QuantumCircuitData

### extension\_lib

Default value: `'include "qelib1.inc";'`

### global\_phase

Return the global phase of the current circuit scope in radians.

### header

Default value: `'OPENQASM 2.0;'`

### instances

Default value: `159`

### layout

Return any associated layout information about the circuit

This attribute contains an optional [`TranspileLayout`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.transpiler.TranspileLayout "qiskit.transpiler.TranspileLayout") object. This is typically set on the output from [`transpile()`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/compiler#qiskit.compiler.transpile "qiskit.compiler.transpile") or [`PassManager.run()`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.transpiler.PassManager#run "qiskit.transpiler.PassManager.run") to retain information about the permutations caused on the input circuit by transpilation.

There are two types of permutations caused by the [`transpile()`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/compiler#qiskit.compiler.transpile "qiskit.compiler.transpile") function, an initial layout which permutes the qubits based on the selected physical qubits on the [`Target`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.transpiler.Target "qiskit.transpiler.Target"), and a final layout which is an output permutation caused by [`SwapGate`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.library.SwapGate "qiskit.circuit.library.SwapGate")s inserted during routing.

### metadata

The user provided metadata associated with the circuit.

The metadata for the circuit is a user provided `dict` of metadata for the circuit. It will not be used to influence the execution or operation of the circuit, but it is expected to be passed between all transforms of the circuit (ie transpilation) and that providers will associate any circuit metadata with the results it returns from execution of that circuit.

### num\_ancillas

Return the number of ancilla qubits.

### num\_clbits

Return number of classical bits.

### num\_parameters

The number of parameter objects in the circuit.

### num\_qubits

Return number of qubits.

### op\_start\_times

Return a list of operation start times.

This attribute is enabled once one of scheduling analysis passes runs on the quantum circuit.

**Returns**

List of integers representing instruction start times. The index corresponds to the index of instruction in `QuantumCircuit.data`.

**Raises**

[**AttributeError**](https://docs.python.org/3/library/exceptions.html#AttributeError) – When circuit is not scheduled.

### parameters

The parameters defined in the circuit.

This attribute returns the [`Parameter`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.Parameter "qiskit.circuit.Parameter") objects in the circuit sorted alphabetically. Note that parameters instantiated with a [`ParameterVector`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.ParameterVector "qiskit.circuit.ParameterVector") are still sorted numerically.

**Examples**

The snippet below shows that insertion order of parameters does not matter.

```python
>>> from qiskit.circuit import QuantumCircuit, Parameter
>>> a, b, elephant = Parameter("a"), Parameter("b"), Parameter("elephant")
>>> circuit = QuantumCircuit(1)
>>> circuit.rx(b, 0)
>>> circuit.rz(elephant, 0)
>>> circuit.ry(a, 0)
>>> circuit.parameters  # sorted alphabetically!
ParameterView([Parameter(a), Parameter(b), Parameter(elephant)])
```

Bear in mind that alphabetical sorting might be unintuitive when it comes to numbers. The literal “10” comes before “2” in strict alphabetical sorting.

```python
>>> from qiskit.circuit import QuantumCircuit, Parameter
>>> angles = [Parameter("angle_1"), Parameter("angle_2"), Parameter("angle_10")]
>>> circuit = QuantumCircuit(1)
>>> circuit.u(*angles, 0)
>>> circuit.draw()
   ┌─────────────────────────────┐
q: ┤ U(angle_1,angle_2,angle_10) ├
   └─────────────────────────────┘
>>> circuit.parameters
ParameterView([Parameter(angle_1), Parameter(angle_10), Parameter(angle_2)])
```

To respect numerical sorting, a [`ParameterVector`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.ParameterVector "qiskit.circuit.ParameterVector") can be used.

```python
```

```python
>>> from qiskit.circuit import QuantumCircuit, Parameter, ParameterVector
>>> x = ParameterVector("x", 12)
>>> circuit = QuantumCircuit(1)
>>> for x_i in x:
...     circuit.rx(x_i, 0)
>>> circuit.parameters
ParameterView([
    ParameterVectorElement(x[0]), ParameterVectorElement(x[1]),
    ParameterVectorElement(x[2]), ParameterVectorElement(x[3]),
    ..., ParameterVectorElement(x[11])
])
```

**Returns**

The sorted [`Parameter`](/docs/api/qiskit/0.46/qiskit.circuit.Parameter "qiskit.circuit.Parameter") objects in the circuit.

### prefix

Default value: `'circuit'`

### qubits

Returns a list of quantum bits in the order that the registers were added.