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c++c++11numericalnumerical-computing

Best way to check if double equals negative infinity in C++


I found this: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/numeric/math/isinf but it appears to check for either positive or negative infinity. I just want to check if a value is equal to exactly negative infinity, or in otherwords is log(0)

Thanks for answer! Based on response below, here is some code that shows what works.

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <math.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    double c = std::log(0.0);
    auto result = c == - INFINITY;
    cout << result << endl;
    return 0;
}

Solution

  • x == -1.0 / 0.0

    This expression evaluates to true iff x is negative infinity.

    If you are willing to include cmath, then x == - INFINITY is more readable.

    Assuming that floating-point types are mapped to IEEE 754 formats, then each of them has its own infinity. 1.0 / 0.0 is a double infinity. It doesn't matter much the type of INFINITY because “usual arithmetic conversions” will take care of matching the types of the left- and right-hand-side of ==.