MAX, MIN - maximum or minimum of two values
Contents
Bugs
Due to the usual arithmetic conversions, the result of these macros may be very different from either of
the arguments. To avoid this, ensure that both arguments have the same type.
Description
These macros return the maximum or minimum of a and b.
Errors
These macros may raise the "invalid" floating-point exception when any of the arguments is NaN.
Examples
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/param.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int a, b, x;
if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <num> <num>\n", argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
a = atoi(argv[1]);
b = atoi(argv[2]);
x = MAX(a, b);
printf("MAX(%d, %d) is %d\n", a, b, x);
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Library
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
Name
MAX, MIN - maximum or minimum of two values
Notes
If either of the arguments is of a floating-point type, you might prefer to use fmax(3) or fmin(3), which
can handle NaN.
The arguments may be evaluated more than once, or not at all.
Some UNIX systems might provide these macros in a different header, or not at all.
Return Value
These macros return the value of one of their arguments, possibly converted to a different type (see
BUGS).
See Also
fmax(3), fmin(3) Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-06-15 MAX(3)
Standards
GNU, BSD.
Synopsis
#include<sys/param.h>MAX(a,b);MIN(a,b);
