CSharp - Float and Double Special Values

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Introduction

Floating-point types have special values to deal with the results of certain operations.

These special values are

  • NaN (Not a Number),
  • +Infinity,
  • -Infinity, and
  • -0

The float and double types have constants for NaN, +Infinity, and -Infinity.

The constants that represent special values for double and float are as follows:

Special value Double constant Float constant
NaN double.NaN float.NaN
+Infinity double.PositiveInfinityfloat.PositiveInfinity
-Infinity double.NegativeInfinity float.NegativeInfinity
-0 -0.0-0.0f

For example, you can output the value of Negative Infinity in double: 

Console.WriteLine (double.NegativeInfinity);   // -Infinity

Rule

Dividing a nonzero number by zero results in an infinite value.

Dividing zero by zero, or subtracting infinity from infinity, results in a NaN.

When using ==, a NaN value is never equal to another value, even another NaN value.

To test whether a value is NaN, you must use the float.IsNaN or double.IsNaN method.

When using object.Equals, two NaN values are equal.

Demo

using System;
class MainClass/*from w ww  . j a  va 2s .  co m*/
{
   public static void Main(string[] args)
   {

     Console.WriteLine ( 1.0 /  0.0);                  //  Infinity
     Console.WriteLine (-1.0 /  0.0);                  // -Infinity
     Console.WriteLine ( 1.0 / -0.0);                  // -Infinity
     Console.WriteLine (-1.0 / -0.0);                  //  Infinity
     Console.WriteLine ( 0.0 /  0.0);                  //  NaN
     Console.WriteLine ((1.0 /  0.0) - (1.0 / 0.0));   //  NaN
     Console.WriteLine (0.0 / 0.0 == double.NaN);    // False
     Console.WriteLine (double.IsNaN (0.0 / 0.0));   // True
     Console.WriteLine (object.Equals (0.0 / 0.0, double.NaN));   // True
   }
}

Result