FminFmax

FminFmax is a term used in computing to denote the pair of operations that compute the minimum and maximum of two values. In practice it usually refers to the floating-point variants of min and max provided by standard libraries, often called fmin and fmax, along with their float-specific forms such as fminf and fmaxf in C and C++.

The primary role of these functions is to return the smaller or larger of two inputs, respectively. The exact handling of special values like NaN and signed zero is defined by the language standard and may differ between implementations; therefore, programmers should consult the relevant documentation when precision around exceptional values matters.

Language support and typical usage: In C and C++, the functions are available in the standard library (for example, std::fmin, std::fmax and the float variants std::fminf, std::fmaxf). Java provides Math.min and Math.max for double and float values. Python commonly uses the built-in min and max for comparable values; some numerical libraries expose fmin and fmax variants with behaviors aligned to IEEE 754.

See also: Min function, Max function, IEEE 754 floating-point standard, NaN handling, Floating-point arithmetic.

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