Is there something that's larger than any numbers in PHP?

Question

I need to simulate a ∞ in PHP.

So that min(∞,$number) is always $number.

Answer 1

min($number, $number + 1) ??

Answer 2

In Perl you can use

$INF = 9**9E9;

which is larger than any value you can store in IEEE floating point numbers. And that really works as intended: any non-infinite number will be smaller than $INF:

$N < $INF

is true for any "normal" number $N.

Maybe you use it in PHP too?

Answer 3

If your only concern is comparison function then yes, you can use array(), it will be always larger then any number

like

echo min(array(), 9999999999999999);

or

if (array() > 9999999999999999) {
  echo 'array won';
} else {
  echo 'number won';
}