Integer overflow

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In computer programming, an integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation on integers attempts to create a numeric value that is outside of the range that can be represented in the space allocated for the result – either higher than the maximum or lower than the minimum representable value. Most integer arithmetic in modern computation uses binary representation of integers, though decimal representation also exists. This article will focus on binary representation, though similar considerations hold in the other case. An integer represented as a bit-pattern in a computer can be interpreted as either an unsigned integer (whose value can be from 0 up to some maximum) or a signed integer (whose value can be positive or negative). Most commonly, signed integers are represented in two's complement format, where the high-order bit is interpreted as the sign (0 for +, 1 for −). For example, in a 32-bit word, an unsigned integer has a value from 0 to 232 − 1 = 4,294,967,295, while a signed...

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