INF Infinity Constant

Section: Base Constants

Usage

Returns a value that represents positive infinity for both 32 and 64-bit floating point values. There are several forms for the Inf function. The first form returns a double precision Inf. 
   y = inf

The next form takes a class name that can be either 'double' 

   y = inf('double')

or 'single': 

   y = inf('single')

With a single parameter it generates a square matrix of infs. 

   y = inf(n)

Alternatively, you can specify the dimensions of the array via 

   y = inf(m,n,p,...)

or 

   y = inf([m,n,p,...])

Finally, you can add a classname of either 'single' or 'double'.

Function Internals

The infinity constant has several interesting properties. In particular:

Note that infinities are not preserved under type conversion to integer types (see the examples below).

Example

The following examples demonstrate the various properties of the infinity constant. 
--> inf*0

ans = 
 NaN 

--> inf*2

ans = 
 Inf 

--> inf*-2

ans = 
 -Inf 

--> inf/inf

ans = 
 NaN 

--> inf/0

ans = 
 Inf 

--> inf/nan

ans = 
 NaN

Note that infinities are preserved under type conversion to floating point types (i.e., float, double, complex and dcomplex types), but not integer types. 

--> uint32(inf)

ans = 
 4294967295 

--> complex(inf)

ans = 
 Inf