what does NaN mean out of printf?

James Salter jsalter at slo.uucp
Thu Jul 20 04:14:55 AEST 1989


In article <23490 at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bobmon at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes:
>NaN == Not a Number
>
>i.e., not a legitimate floating-point value.  I'm reasonably certain that
>this is defined by the IEEE floating-point format standard.

A NaN is the Floating Point representation of non-legitimite (?) values.
There are both Signalling NaNs and Quiet NaNs which operate differently
with respect to exception handling.

>the sorcerer's apprentice

jim/jsalter   PS/2 MathLib/FP   IBM AWD, Palo Alto   T465/(415)855-4427 
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  "Reality Corrupts. Absolute Reality corrupts Absolutely." -- kaydin



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