TITLE: Is there a mathematical operator to truncate negative values to zero?
QUESTION [14 upvotes]: Is there a mathematical symbol that truncates a value x to 0 if it is negative, and leaves it untouched otherwise? Something which is logically equivalent to $\max(x, 0)$?

REPLY [14 votes]: How about adding the absolute value of the number to the number, and then dividing by 2.  If the number is negative, the total will be zero, which divided by 2 is still zero.  If the number is positive or zero, the result will be the number you began with.