Using Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY in Java to find minimum value

donnyton picture donnyton · Sep 13, 2013 · Viewed 11k times · Source

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.

Answer

rolfl picture rolfl · Sep 13, 2013

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.