Why does max return optional?

[spinicist]

Hello,
I've used flux for the first time and it immediately fixed a stupid lifetime bug I had with std::max_element, so many thanks.

I'm curious - why does flux::max() return an optional? Is there a situation where max can "fail"?

[tcbrindle]

Hi @spinicist, glad you've found Flux useful!

I'm curious - why does flux::max() return an optional? Is there a situation where max can "fail"?

Yes -- when called on an empty sequence, there is no "maximal" element, so flux::max() returns nullopt instead. (Note that std::ranges::max() has undefined behaviour in this case.)

[spinicist]

Ahah. I had not considered empty sequences. The choice definitely makes sense now.

I took the liberty of creating #232