How to workaround the inconsistent definition of numeric_limits::min()?

Question

The numeric_limits traits is supposed to be a general way of obtaining various type infomation, to be able to do things like

template
T min(con         


        

Answer 1

numeric_limits::min returned the lowest negative number, all floating point number types, return the smallest positive number when I tried it with Sun CC & g++.

I guess this is because 'smallest' and 'minimum' mean different things with floating point numbers. It is a bit odd though.

Both Sun CC and g++ produce the same result :

short:min: -32768 max: 32767

int:min: -2147483648 max: 2147483647

unsigned int:min: 0 max: 4294967295

long:min: -2147483648 max: 2147483647

float:min: 1.17549e-38 max: 3.40282e+38

double:min: 2.22507e-308 max: 1.79769e+308

long double:min: 3.3621e-4932 max: 1.18973e+4932

unsigned short:min: 0 max: 65535

unsigned int:min: 0 max: 4294967295

unsigned long:min: 0 max: 429496729

template
void showMinMax()
{
    cout << "min: " << numeric_limits::min() << endl;
    cout << "max: " << numeric_limits::max() << endl;
    cout << endl;
}

int main()
{
cout << "short:";
showMinMax()
...etc...etc..