Infinity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Computing== The [[IEEE floating-point]] standard (IEEE 754) specifies a positive and a negative infinity value (and also [[NaN|indefinite]] values). These are defined as the result of [[arithmetic overflow]], [[division by zero]], and other exceptional operations.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Infinity and NaN (The GNU C Library)|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Infinity-and-NaN.html|access-date=2021-03-15|website=www.gnu.org}}</ref> Some [[programming language]]s, such as [[Java (programming language)|Java]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Gosling|first=James |display-authors=etal |title=The Java Language Specification|publisher=Oracle America, Inc.|location=California|date=27 July 2012|edition=Java SE 7|chapter=4.2.3.|access-date=6 September 2012|chapter-url=http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-4.html#jls-4.2.3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609071157/http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-4.html#jls-4.2.3|archive-date=9 June 2012}}</ref> and [[J (programming language)|J]],<ref> {{cite book |last= Stokes |first= Roger |title= Learning J |date= July 2012 |chapter= 19.2.1 |chapter-url= http://www.rogerstokes.free-online.co.uk/19.htm#10 |access-date= 6 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120325064205/http://www.rogerstokes.free-online.co.uk/19.htm#10 |archive-date= 25 March 2012 }}</ref> allow the programmer an explicit access to the positive and negative infinity values as language constants. These can be used as [[Greatest element|greatest and least elements]], as they compare (respectively) greater than or less than all other values. They have uses as [[sentinel value]]s in [[algorithm]]s involving [[sorting]], [[Search algorithm|searching]], or [[window function|windowing]].{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} In languages that do not have greatest and least elements, but do allow [[operator overloading|overloading]] of [[relational operator]]s, it is possible for a programmer to ''create'' the greatest and least elements. In languages that do not provide explicit access to such values from the initial state of the program, but do implement the floating-point [[data type]], the infinity values may still be accessible and usable as the result of certain operations.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} In programming, an [[infinite loop]] is a [[loop (computing)|loop]] whose exit condition is never satisfied, thus executing indefinitely. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page