diff --git a/src/IO.f90 b/src/IO.f90
index 4b962bd1e..af59b11b9 100644
--- a/src/IO.f90
+++ b/src/IO.f90
@@ -191,7 +191,9 @@ recursive function IO_recursiveRead(fileName,cnt) result(fileContent)
     l,i, &
     myStat
 
-  if (merge(cnt,0_pInt,present(cnt))>10_pInt) call IO_error(106_pInt,ext_msg=trim(fileName))
+  if (present(cnt)) then
+    if (cnt>10_pInt) call IO_error(106_pInt,ext_msg=trim(fileName))
+  endif
 
 !--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ! read data as stream
diff --git a/src/math.f90 b/src/math.f90
index 440ee5303..725c0446e 100644
--- a/src/math.f90
+++ b/src/math.f90
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ subroutine math_check
  endif
  
 end subroutine math_check
- 
+
 
 !--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 !> @brief Quicksort algorithm for two-dimensional integer arrays
@@ -2625,12 +2625,9 @@ real(pReal) pure function math_clip(a, left, right)
  real(pReal), intent(in) :: a
  real(pReal), intent(in), optional :: left, right
 
-   
- math_clip = min ( &
-                   max (merge(left, -huge(a), present(left)), a), &
-                        merge(right, huge(a), present(right)) &
-                  )
-
+ math_clip = a
+ if (present(left))   math_clip = max(left,math_clip)
+ if (present(right))  math_clip = min(right,math_clip)
  if (present(left) .and. present(right)) &
    math_clip = merge (IEEE_value(1.0_pReal,IEEE_quiet_NaN),math_clip, left>right)