9999 is the

natural number In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country"). Numbers used for counting are called ''Cardinal n ...

following 9998 and preceding

10000 10,000 (ten thousand) is the natural number following 9,999 and preceding 10,001. Name Many languages have a specific word for this number: in Ancient Greek it is (the etymological root of the word myriad in English), in Aramaic , in Hebrew ...

. 9999 is an auspicious number in Chinese folklore. Many estimations of the rooms contained in the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...

point to 9999. Chinese tomb contracts often involved being buried with 9999 coins, a practice related to

Joss paper Joss paper, also known as incense papers, are papercrafts or sheets of paper made into burnt offerings common in Chinese ancestral worship (such as the veneration of the deceased family members and relatives on holidays and special occasions). Wo ...

, as it was believed the dead would need that amount to buy the burial plot from the Earth goddess. 9999 is also the

emergency telephone number Most public switched telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number (sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number) that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assista ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

Mathematics

9999 can be used as a divisor to generate 4-digit decimal recurrences. For example, 1234 / 9999 = 0.123412341234... . 9999 is a

Kaprekar number In mathematics, a natural number in a given number base is a p-Kaprekar number if the representation of its square in that base can be split into two parts, where the second part has p digits, that add up to the original number. The numbers are n ...

Computer and software

9999 was the last possible

line number In computing, a line number is a method used to specify a particular sequence of characters in a text file. The most common method of assigning numbers to lines is to assign every line a unique number, starting at 1 for the first line, and increm ...

in some older

programming languages A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

such as

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

. Often the line "9999 END" was the first line written for a new program. Some very old software used "9999" as end of file, however no problems occurred on September 9, 1999

Videogames

The King of Fighters ''The King of Fighters'' (''KOF'') is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of ''The King of Fighters '94'' in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main plat ...

character K9999 has the number on his name, although it is read as "kay-four-nine". In

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

and other RPGs, 9999 is often the maximum damage or healing number the game is allowed to calculate.

References

Integers {{Number-stub