It turns out, this is an interesting problem. The assumption I make is that for integer intervals, modulo is defined with respect to truncated division (round towards 0).
As a consequence, mod(-a,m) == -mod(a,m) for all a, m. Moreover, sign(mod(a,m)) == sign(a).
Definitions, before we start
Closed interval from a to b: [a,b]
Empty interval: [] := [+Inf,-Inf]
Negation: -[a,b] := [-b,-a]
Union: [a,b] u [c,d] := [min(a,c),max(b,d)]
Absolute value: |m| := max(m,-m)
Simpler Case: Fixed modulus m
It is easier to start with a fixed m. We will later generalize this to the modulo of two intervals. The definition builds up recursively. It should be no problem to implement this in your favorite programming language. Pseudocode:
def mod1([a,b], m):
// (1): empty interval
if a > b || m == 0:
return []
// (2): compute modulo with positive interval and negate
else if b < 0:
return -mod1([-b,-a], m)
// (3): split into negative and non-negative interval, compute and join
else if a < 0:
return mod1([a,-1], m) u mod1([0,b], m)
// (4): there is no k > 0 such that a < k*m <= b
else if b-a < |m| && a % m <= b % m:
return [a % m, b % m]
// (5): we can't do better than that
else
return [0,|m|-1]
Up to this point, we can't do better than that. The resulting interval in (5) might be an over-approximation, but it is the best we can get. If we were allowed to return a set of intervals, we could be more precise.
General case
The same ideas apply to the case where our modulus is an interval itself. Here we go:
def mod2([a,b], [m,n]):
// (1): empty interval
if a > b || m > n:
return []
// (2): compute modulo with positive interval and negate
else if b < 0:
return -mod2([-b,-a], [m,n])
// (3): split into negative and non-negative interval, compute, and join
else if a < 0:
return mod2([a,-1], [m,n]) u mod2([0,b], [m,n])
// (4): use the simpler function from before
else if m == n:
return mod1([a,b], m)
// (5): use only non-negative m and n
else if n <= 0:
return mod2([a,b], [-n,-m])
// (6): similar to (5), make modulus non-negative
else if m <= 0:
return mod2([a,b], [1, max(-m,n)])
// (7): compare to (4) in mod1, check b-a < |modulus|
else if b-a >= n:
return [0,n-1]
// (8): similar to (7), split interval, compute, and join
else if b-a >= m:
return [0, b-a-1] u mod2([a,b], [b-a+1,n])
// (9): modulo has no effect
else if m > b:
return [a,b]
// (10): there is some overlapping of [a,b] and [n,m]
else if n > b:
return [0,b]
// (11): either compute all possibilities and join, or be imprecise
else:
return [0,n-1] // imprecise
Have fun! :)
