A digital processor is provided having an instruction set with a complex exponential function. The digital processor evaluates a complex exponential function for an input value, x, by obtaining a complex exponential software instruction having the input value, x, as an input; and in response to the complex exponential software instruction: invoking at least one complex exponential functional unit that implements complex exponential software instructions to apply the complex exponential function to the input value, x; and generating an output corresponding to the complex exponential of the input value, x. A complex exponential function for an input value, x, can be evaluated by wrapping the input value to maintain a given range; computing a coarse approximation angle using a look-up table; scaling the coarse approximation angle to obtain an angle from 0 to θ; and computing a fine corrective value using a polynomial approximation.