Setting an int to Infinity in C

Question

I have an int a that needs to be equal to  infinity   This means that if  int b   anyValue    a gt b is always true   Is there any feature of C   that could make this possible

User · Accepted Answer

Integers are finite  so sadly you can t have set it to a true infinity  However you can set it to the max value of an int  this would mean that it would be greater or equal to any other int  ie   a gt  b   is always true   You would do this by   include  lt limits gt     your code here  int a   std  numeric limits lt int gt   max       go off and lead a happy and productive life   This will normally be equal to 2 147 483 647  If you really need a true  infinite  value  you would have to use a double or a float  Then you can simply do this  float a   std  numeric limits lt float gt   infinity      Additional explanations of numeric limits can be found here  Happy Coding   Note  As WTP mentioned  if it is absolutely necessary to have an int that is  infinite  you would have to write a wrapper class for an int and overload the comparison operators  though this is probably not necessary for most projects

User · Answer

int is inherently finite  there s no value that satisfies your requirements   If you re willing to change the type of b  though  you can do this with operator overrides   class infinitytype      template lt typename T gt  bool operator gt  const T  amp   const infinitytype  amp       return false     template lt typename T gt  bool operator lt  const T  amp   const infinitytype  amp       return true     bool operator lt  const infinitytype  amp   const infinitytype  amp       return false      bool operator gt  const infinitytype  amp   const infinitytype  amp       return false        add operator    operator    operator gt    operator lt       int main       std  cout  lt  lt    INT MAX  lt  infinitytype         true

User · Answer

int min and max values  Int -2 147 483 648   2 147 483 647 Int 64 -9 223 372 036 854 775 808   9 223 372 036 854 775 807  i guess you could set a to equal 9 223 372 036 854 775 807 but it would need to be an int64  if you always want a to be grater that b why do you need to check it  just set it to be true always

User · Answer

This is a message for me in the future   Just use   unsigned    int 0   It creates the largest possible number in any machine by assigning all bits to 1s  ones  and then casts it to unsigned  Even better   define INF  unsigned    int 0    And then just use INF in your code

User · Answer

Integers are inherently finite  The closest you can get is by setting a to int s maximum value    include  lt limits gt           int a   std  numeric limits lt int gt   max      Which would be 2 31 - 1  or 2 147 483 647  if int is 32 bits wide on your implementation   If you really need infinity  use a floating point number type  like float or double  You can then get infinity with   double a   std  numeric limits lt double gt   infinity

User · Answer

You can also use INT MAX    http   www cplusplus com reference climits   it s equivalent to using numeric limits

[c++] Setting an int to Infinity in C++

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