MIN and MAX in C

Question

Where are MIN and MAX defined in C, if at all?

What is the best way to implement these, as generically and type safely as possible? (Compil

Answer 1

It's also provided in the GNU libc (Linux) and FreeBSD versions of sys/param.h, and has the definition provided by dreamlax.

---

On Debian:

$ uname -sr
Linux 2.6.11

$ cat /etc/debian_version
5.0.2

$ egrep 'MIN\(|MAX\(' /usr/include/sys/param.h
#define MIN(a,b) (((a)<(b))?(a):(b))
#define MAX(a,b) (((a)>(b))?(a):(b))

$ head -n 2 /usr/include/sys/param.h | grep GNU
This file is part of the GNU C Library.

On FreeBSD:

$ uname -sr
FreeBSD 5.5-STABLE

$ egrep 'MIN\(|MAX\(' /usr/include/sys/param.h
#define MIN(a,b) (((a)<(b))?(a):(b))
#define MAX(a,b) (((a)>(b))?(a):(b))

---

The source repositories are here:

• GNU C Library
• FreeBSD