Integer overflow: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:54, 9 January 2009

Revision as of 17:21, 22 March 2009

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In [[computer programming]], an '''integer overflow''' occurs when an [[arithmetic]] operation attempts to create a numeric value that is larger than 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 processors like [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]]s and [[Digital signal processor|DSP]]s, the result [[saturation arithmetic|saturates]], that is once the maximum value is reached attempts to make it larger simply return the maximum result.

==Origin==