Infinite integer in Python

python python-3.x math infinity
Carlo Pires picture Carlo Pires · Jul 5, 2014 · Viewed 100k times · Source

Python 3 has float('inf') and Decimal('Infinity') but no int('inf'). So, why a number representing the infinite set of integers is missing in the language? Is int('inf') unreasonable?

Answer

Søren V. Poulsen picture Søren V. Poulsen · Jul 5, 2014

Taken from here: https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Infinity-and-NaN.html

IEEE 754 floating point numbers can represent positive or negative infinity, and NaN (not a number)

That is, the representation of float and Decimal can store these special values. However, there is nothing within the basic type int that can store the same. As you exceed the limit of 2^32 in an unsigned 32-bit int, you simply roll over to 0 again.

If you want, you could create a class containing an integer which could feature the possibility of infinite values.

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