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Not a number

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Not a number (NaN) is a special value in some computer programming languages to indicate that an arithmetic operation has resulted in a value that is not a number.

In IEEE arithmetic, single precision, NaN is represented by 011111111 and the rest of the bit pattern padded out by any string other than all zeroes (as that would represent positive infinity).[1]

  1. Jean-Michel Muller, Nicolas Brisebarre, et al, Handbook of Floating-Point Arithmetic. New York: Springer (2009): 59