1.\" Copyright (c) 2004 David Schultz <das@FreeBSD.org> 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 13.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 14.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 15.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 16.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 17.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 18.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 19.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 20.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 21.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 22.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 23.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 24.\" 25.Dd April 11, 2026 26.Dt FMAX 3 27.Os 28.Sh NAME 29.Nm fmax , 30.Nm fmaxf , 31.Nm fmaxl , 32.Nm fmin , 33.Nm fminf , 34.Nm fminl 35.Nd floating-point maximum and minimum functions 36.Sh LIBRARY 37.Lb libm 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.In math.h 40.Ft double 41.Fn fmax "double x" "double y" 42.Ft float 43.Fn fmaxf "float x" "float y" 44.Ft "long double" 45.Fn fmaxl "long double x" "long double y" 46.Ft double 47.Fn fmin "double x" "double y" 48.Ft float 49.Fn fminf "float x" "float y" 50.Ft "long double" 51.Fn fminl "long double x" "long double y" 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Fn fmax , 55.Fn fmaxf , 56and 57.Fn fmaxl 58functions return the larger of 59.Fa x 60and 61.Fa y , 62and likewise, the 63.Fn fmin , 64.Fn fminf , 65and 66.Fn fminl 67functions return the smaller of 68.Fa x 69and 70.Fa y . 71If one argument is an \*(Na, then the other argument is returned. 72If both arguments are \*(Nas, then the result is an \*(Na. 73These routines do not raise any floating-point exceptions. 74.Sh SEE ALSO 75.Xr fabs 3 , 76.Xr fdim 3 , 77.Xr math 3 78.Sh STANDARDS 79The 80.Fn fmax , 81.Fn fmaxf , 82.Fn fmaxl , 83.Fn fmin , 84.Fn fminf , 85and 86.Fn fminl 87functions conform to 88.St -isoC-99 . 89.Sh CAVEATS 90The library implementations of these functions treat 91.Li +0.0 92as being larger than 93.Li -0.0 . 94This behavior is not specified by the C standard, is not portable, 95and may not occur in light of compiler optimizations. 96Applications requiring specific handling of signed zeroes or 97.No \*(Na 98values are recommended to use 99.Xr fmaximum_num 3 100and 101.Xr fminimum_num 3 102instead, which have strictly defined behavior for these cases. 103.Sh HISTORY 104These routines first appeared in 105.Fx 5.3 . 106