INT_MAX and INT_MIN in C/C++ and Applications

Most of the times, in competitive programming, there is a need to assign the variable, the maximum or minimum value that data type can hold, but remembering such a large and precise number comes out to be a difficult job. Therefore, C++ has certain macros to represent these numbers, so that these can be directly assigned to the variable without actually typing the whole number.

INT_MAX is a macro that specifies that an integer variable cannot store any value beyond this limit.
INT_MIN specifies that an integer variable cannot store any value below this limit.

Values of INT_MAX and INT_MIN may vary
from compiler to compiler. Following are
typical values in a compiler where integers
are stored using 32 bits.

Value of INT_MAX is +2147483647.
Value of INT_MIN is -2147483648.

// C++ program to print values of INT_MAX 
// and INT_MIN 
#include<bits/stdc++.h> 
int main() 
{ 
   printf("%d\n", INT_MAX); 
   printf("%d", INT_MIN); 
   return 0; 
} 

Output:

2147483647
-2147483648

Applications of INT_MAX and INT_MIN :

1. Check for Integer overflow :

// C++ code to check for Integer overflow while  
// adding 2 numbers 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
  
// Function to check integer overflow 
int check_overflow(int num1, int num2) 
{ 
    // Checking if addition will cause overflow 
    if (num1 > INT_MAX - num2) 
        return -1; 
  
    // No overflow occured 
    else
        return num1 + num2; 
} 
  
// Driver code 
int main() 
{ 
    // The sum of these numbers will equal INT_MAX 
    // If any of them is incremented by 1, overflow  
    // will occur 
    int num1 = 2147483627; 
    int num2 = 20; 
  
    // Result is -1 if overflow occurred 
    // Stores the sum, otherwise 
    int result = check_overflow(num1, num2); 
  
    // Overflow occurred 
    if (result == -1) 
        std::cout << "Integer overflow occurred"; 
  
    // No overflow 
    else
        std::cout << result; 
} 

Output:

2147483647

Similarly, we can check for overflow while subtracting 2 numbers using INT_MIN.

2. Computing MIN in an array with large elements
We usually assign a high value to MIN to compute minimum value in an array. But if an array has large elements, we must assign the highest possible value to the array.

Below is the C++ implementation :

// C++ code to compute MIN element 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
  
// Function to compute minimum element in array 
int compute_min(int arr[], int n) 
{ 
    // Assigning highest value 
    int MIN = INT_MAX; 
  
    // Traversing and updating MIN 
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)  
        MIN = std::min(MIN, arr[i]);     
  
    // Printing MIN element 
    std::cout << MIN; 
} 
  
// Driver code 
int main() 
{ 
    // array with MIN to compute 
    int arr[] = { 2019403813, 2147389580, 2145837140, 2108938594, 2112076334 }; 
  
    // size of array 
    int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]); 
  
    // Function call to compute MIN 
    compute_min(arr, n); 
} 

Output:

2019403813

Similarly, MAX can be found in an array of large numbers using INT_MIN.

This article is contributed by Rohit Thapliyal. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

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