Min/max of arbitrary type T in C++11

Question

Is there a way to assign a variable of arbitrary type T it's minimum or maximum value?

template <typename T>
void setMax(T& var){
var=MAXIMUM_OF_TYPE_T; //can this be done?
}

T toBeMaxed;
setMax(toBeMaxed);

In case that T was int, I could as well do

var=std::numeric_limits<int>::max();

instead.

Answer 1

If you are only dealing with types that have a specialization of std::numeric_limits<T>::max();, you can implement your function as follows:

#include <limits>
template <typename T>
void setMax(T& var){
    var=std::numeric_limits<T>::max();
}
int main() {
    int intvar;
    setMax(intvar);

    float floatvar;
    setMax(floatvar);

    char charvar;
    setMax(charvar);
}