INFINITY

< c‎ | numeric‎ | math
 
 
 
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INFINITY
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Defined in header <math.h>
#define INFINITY /*implementation defined*/
(since C99)

If the implementation supports floating-point infinities, the macro INFINITY expands to constant expression of type float which evaluates to positive or unsigned infinity.

If the implementation does not support floating-point infinities, the macro INFINITY expands to a positive value that is guaranteed to overflow a float at compile time, and the use of this macro generates a compiler warning.

The style used to print an infinity is implementation defined.

Example

Show style used to print an infinity and IEEE format.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
#include <string.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    double f = INFINITY;
    uint64_t fn; memcpy(&fn, &f, sizeof f);
    printf("INFINITY:   %f %" PRIx64 "\n", f, fn);
}

Possible output:

INFINITY:   inf 7ff0000000000000

References

  • C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
  • 7.12/4 INFINITY (p: 231-232)
  • C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
  • 7.12/4 INFINITY (p: 212-213)

See also

(C99)
checks if the given number is infinite
(function)
indicates value too big to be representable (infinity) by float, double and long double respectively
(macro constant)