# Ceiling and floor operators used for min max

quantum__2000
I remember seeing somewhere people using symbols for ceiling and floor operators together with super/subscripts as substitutes for min and max. Example:
$$\lceil x \rceil ^k$$
to mean min(x,k).

Has anyone ever seen this? Where? Thanks!

Staff Emeritus
Homework Helper
I'm sorry, I haven't seen this. But I just wanted to say that this certainly ranks among the top 10 worst notations I've ever seen.

Mentor
I remember seeing somewhere people using symbols for ceiling and floor operators together with super/subscripts as substitutes for min and max. Example:
$$\lceil x \rceil ^k$$
to mean min(x,k).

Has anyone ever seen this? Where? Thanks!
I haven't seen the notation as you used it, to give the minimum of two numbers, but I have seen this:
##\lceil x \rceil##, also called the smallest integer function. It is defined as being the smallest integer that is greater than or equal to x. Many programming languages, including C, C++, and others, have a ceiling function, ceil(x), that does this.
For example, ##\lceil 1.8 \rceil = 2##.

The counterpart is the floor function, or greatest integer function, denoted ##\lfloor x \rfloor##. C, C++, and others have floor(x). This is defined as the largest integer that is less than or equal to x.
For example, ##\lfloor 2.35 \rfloor = 2##.

I agree with micromass that ##\lceil x \rceil^k## is terrible notation.