MAX

Section: C Library Functions (3)
Updated: 2022-10-30
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NAME

MAX, MIN - maximum or minimum of two values

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/param.h>

MAX(a, b);
MIN(a, b);

DESCRIPTION

These macros return the maximum or minimum of a and b.

RETURN VALUE

These macros return the value of one of their arguments, possibly converted to a different type (see BUGS).

ERRORS

These macros may raise the "invalid" floating-point exception when any of the arguments is NaN.

STANDARDS

These nonstandard macros are present in glibc and the BSDs.

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.

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.

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); }

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Time: 15:08:23 GMT, May 18, 2024

MAX