Int32.Min vs Int32.MinMagnitude

Question

What is the difference between the static methods Int32.Min and Int32.MinMagnitude, that were introduced in .NET 7? Their signature and description is the same:

// Compares two values to compute which is lesser.
public static int Min (int x, int y);

// Compares two values to compute which is lesser.
public static int MinMagnitude (int x, int y);

Answer 1

MinMagnitude() compares the absolute values of the inputs. When x and y are positive, it works exactly like Min(). If either or both of them are negative then the sign(s) will be ignored for the comparison, but are kept on the return value.

Some examples:

Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude( 10,  1) ==  1);
Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude(-10,  1) ==  1);
Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude( 10, -1) == -1);
Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude(-10, -1) == -1);

One special case is when comparing numbers of equal absolute value, but different sign. Then it returns the negative of the common absolute value:

Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude(-1,  1) == -1);
Debug.Assert(int.MinMagnitude( 1, -1) == -1);

Have a look at the source code here.