Reduced local defining functions differ by a holomorphic unit ($g=uf,u(p)\ne 0$)

The local ring of a complex manifold is the unique factorization domain of convergent power series in local coordinates. A reduced local defining function of a complex analytic hypersurface has each local irreducible factor once. The analytic zero-set ideal is the radical of its principal ideal, and reducedness makes that principal ideal radical. Thus two reduced equations for the same germ generate the same ideal and differ by a unit. A globally irreducible hypersurface may have several local branches; reducedness includes each once. Without reducedness, $f$ and $f^2$ have the same zero set and need not differ by a unit.