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javadoubleminminimuminfinity
donnyton
donnyton

Reputation: 6054

Using Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY in Java to find minimum value

Simple question: will the following code work for finding the minimum value in an array of doubles (assume at least one value exists):

double[] values = ...

double currentMin = Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY;

for(int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
    if(values[i] < currentMin) {
        currentMin = values[i];
    }
}

return currentMin;

The crux of the question is whether POSITIVE_INFINITY will behave as expected when compared to other (real) double values, as well as potential infinities themselves.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 16287

Answers (2)

rolfl
rolfl

Reputation: 17707

It is safe to use Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY. From the specification

All values other than NaN are ordered, with negative infinity less than all finite values, and positive infinity greater than all finite values.

Upvotes: 8

Tommy
Tommy

Reputation: 13642

Just set the minimum to the first element of the array (values[0) since you assume that at-least one value exists. If there is only one element, it must be the minimum, and otherwise, it will be updated accordingly.

Upvotes: 2

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