Looking for the greatest negative float value

[Mel Wilson]

In article <bc7lvb$gm3$1 at news-reader12.wanadoo.fr>,
"Gilles Lenfant" <glenfant at NOSPAM.bigfoot.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I need the same as...
>
>import sys
>negmaxint = - sys.maxint -1
>
>... but for float data
>
>any hint ?

I'm not completely sure this is right, but..


v, w, x = -1.0, 0.0, 0.0
i = 0
while v < w  and i < 2000:
    x, w, v = w, v, v*2.0
    i += 1
print i
print x, w, v

d = -x / 2.0
y = x
while x > w:
    y, x = x, x-d
    d /= 2.0
print repr (y)


winds up printing


1025
-8.98846567431e+307 -1.#INF -1.#INF
-1.7976931348623157e+308

and that last number seems credible.

        Regards.        Mel.