In [[computer programming]], an '''integer overflow''' occurs when an [[arithmetic]] operation attempts to create a numeric value that is larger than that which can be represented within the available storage space. For instance, adding 1 to the largest value that can be represented constitutes an integer overflow. The most common result in these cases is for the least significant representable bits of the result to be stored (the result is said to ''wrap''). On some [[processor]]s the result [[saturation arithmetic|saturates]], that is once the maximum value is reached attempts to make it larger simply return the maximum result.
