How to represent integer infinity?

ConditionRacer picture ConditionRacer · Jan 23, 2014 · Viewed 50.6k times · Source

I need a way to represent an integer number that can be infinite. I'd prefer not to use a floating point type (double.PositiveInfinity) since the number can never be fractional and this might make the API confusing. What is the best way to do this?

Edit: One idea I haven't seen yet is using int? with null representing infinity. Are there any good reasons not to do this?

Answer

BambooleanLogic picture BambooleanLogic · Jan 23, 2014

If you don't need the full range of integer values, you can use the int.MaxValue and int.MinValue constants to represent infinities.

However, if the full range of values is required, I'd suggest either creating a wrapper class or simply going for doubles.