NAN

 

C

Compiler support

Language

Headers

Type support

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Error handling

Dynamic memory management

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Date and time utilities

Input/output support

Localization support

Concurrency support (C11)

Technical Specifications

Symbol index

 

Numerics

Common mathematical functions

Floating-point environment (C99)

Pseudo-random number generation

Complex number arithmetic (C99)

Type-generic math (C99)

 

Common mathematical functions

Types
div_tldiv_tlldiv_timaxdiv_t (C99)(C99)     float_tdouble_t (C99)(C99)     _Decimal32_t_Decimal64_t (C23)(C23)
Functions
Basic operations abslabsllabsimaxabs (C99)(C99) fabs divldivlldivimaxdiv (C99)(C99) fmod remainder (C99) remquo (C99) fma (C99) fdim (C99) nannanfnanlnandN (C99)(C99)(C99)(C23) Maximum/minimum operations fmax (C99) fmaximum (C23) fmaximum_mag (C23) fmaximum_num (C23) fmaximum_mag_num (C23)     fmin (C99) fminimum (C23) fminimum_mag (C23) fminimum_num (C23) fminimum_mag_num (C23) Exponential functions exp exp10 (C23) exp2 (C99) expm1 (C99) exp10m1 (C23) exp2m1 (C23) log log10 log2 (C99) log1plogp1 (C99)(C23) log10p1 (C23) log2p1 (C23) Power functions sqrt cbrt (C99) rootn (C23) rsqrt (C23) hypot (C99) compound (C23) pow pown (C23) powr (C23) Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions sin cos tan asin acos atan atan2 sinpi (C23) cospi (C23) tanpi (C23) asinpi (C23) acospi (C23) atanpi (C23) atan2pi (C23) sinh cosh tanh asinh (C99) acosh (C99) atanh (C99)	Error and gamma functions erf (C99) erfc (C99) lgamma (C99) tgamma (C99) Nearest integer floating-point operations ceil floor roundlroundllround (C99)(C99)(C99) roundeven (C23) trunc (C99) nearbyint (C99) rintlrintllrint (C99)(C99)(C99) fromfpfromfpxufromfpufromfpx (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) Floating-point manipulation functions ldexp frexp scalbnscalbln (C99)(C99) ilogbllogb (C99)(C23) logb (C99) modf nextafternexttoward (C99)(C99) nextupnextdown (C23)(C23) copysign (C99) canonicalize (C23) Narrowing operations fadd (C23) fsub (C23) fmul (C23) fdiv (C23) ffma (C23) fsqrt (C23) Quantum and quantum exponent functions quantizedN (C23) samequantumdN (C23) quantumdN (C23) llquantexpdN (C23) Decimal re-encoding functions encodedecdN (C23) decodedecdN (C23) encodebindN (C23) decodebindN (C23) Total order and payload functions totalorder (C23) getpayload (C23) setpayload (C23) setpayloadsig (C23) Classification fpclassify (C99) iscanonical (C23) isfinite (C99) isinf (C99) isnan (C99) isnormal (C99) signbit (C99) issubnormal (C23) iszero (C23) isgreater (C99) isgreaterequal (C99) isless (C99) islessequal (C99) islessgreater (C99) isunordered (C99) issignaling (C23) iseqsig (C23)
Macro constants
Special floating-point values HUGE_VALFHUGE_VALHUGE_VALLHUGE_VALDN (C99)(C99)(C23) INFINITYDEC_INFINITY (C99)(C23) NANDEC_NAN (C99)(C23) Arguments and return values FP_ILOGB0FP_ILOGBNAN (C99)(C99) FP_INT_UPWARDFP_INT_DOWNWARDFP_INT_TOWARDZEROFP_INT_TONEARESTFROMZEROFP_INT_TONEAREST (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)     FP_LLOGB0FP_LLOGBNAN (C23)(C23) FP_NORMALFP_SUBNORMALFP_ZEROFP_INFINITEFP_NAN (C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)(C99)     Error handling MATH_ERRNOMATH_ERRNOEXCEPT (C99)(C99) math_errhandling (C99)	Fast operation indicators FP_FAST_FMAFFP_FAST_FMA (C99)(C99) FP_FAST_FADDFP_FAST_FADDLFP_FAST_DADDLFP_FAST_DMADDDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)     FP_FAST_FMULFP_FAST_FMULLFP_FAST_DMULLFP_FAST_DMMULDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FFMAFP_FAST_FFMALFP_FAST_DFMALFP_FAST_DMFMADN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FMALFP_FAST_FMADN (C99)(C23) FP_FAST_FSUBFP_FAST_FSUBLFP_FAST_DSUBLFP_FAST_DMSUBDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FDIVFP_FAST_FDIVLFP_FAST_DDIVLFP_FAST_DMDIVDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23) FP_FAST_FSQRTFP_FAST_FSQRTLFP_FAST_DSQRTLFP_FAST_DMSQRTDN (C23)(C23)(C23)(C23)

 

Defined in header <math.h>
#define NAN /*implementation defined*/		(since C99)

The macro NAN expands to a constant expression of type float, which evaluates to a quiet not-a-number (QNaN) value. If the implementation does not support QNaNs, this macro constant is not defined.

The style used to print a NaN is implementation-defined.

Notes

There are many different NaN values, differentiated by their payloads and their sign bits. The contents of the payload and the sign bit of the NaN generated by the macro NAN are implementation-defined.

Example

Show style used to print a NaN and IEEE format.

Run this code

#include <inttypes.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    const double f = NAN;
    uint64_t fn;
    memcpy(&fn, &f, sizeof f);
    printf("NAN:   %f %" PRIx64 "\n", f, fn);
}

Possible output:

NAN:   nan 7ff8000000000000

References

• C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):

• 7.12/5 NAN (p: TBD)

• F.10/11/13 NAN (p: TBD)

• C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

• 7.12/5 NAN (p: TBD)

• F.10/11/13 NAN (p: TBD)

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.12/5 NAN (p: 232)

• F.10/11/13 NAN (p: 518)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.12/5 NAN (p: 213)

• F.9/11/13 NAN (p: 455)

See also

nannanfnanl (C99)(C99)(C99)	returns a NaN (not-a-number) (function)
isnan (C99)	checks if the given number is NaN (function macro)
C++ documentation for NAN