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How to detect integer overflow?
31 answers
I have 2 numbers: A
and B
. I need to calculate A+B
somewhere in my code. Both A
and B
are long long
, and can be positive or negative.
My code runs wrong, and I suspect the problem happens when calculating A+B
. I simply want to check if A+B
exceed long long
range. So, any method is acceptable, as I only use it for debug.
Overflow is possible only when both numbers have the same sign. If both are positive, then you have overflow if mathematically A + B > LLONG_MAX
, or equivalently B > LLONG_MAX - A
. Since the right hand side is non-negative, the latter condition already implies B > 0
. The analogous argument shows that for the negative case, we also need not check the sign of B
(thanks to Ben Voigt for pointing out that the sign check on B
is unnecessary). Then you can check
if (A > 0) {
return B > (LLONG_MAX - A);
}
if (A < 0) {
return B < (LLONG_MIN - A);
}
return false;
to detect overflow. These computations cannot overflow due to the initial checks.
Checking the sign of the result of A + B
would work with guaranteed wrap-around semantics of overflowing integer computations. But overflow of signed integers is undefined behaviour, and even on CPUs where wrap-around is the implemented behaviour, the compiler may assume that no undefined behaviour occurs and remove the overflow-check altogether when implemented thus. So the check suggested in the comments to the question is highly unreliable.
Something like the following:
long long max = std::numeric_limits<long long>::max();
long long min = std::numeric_limits<long long>::min();
if(A < 0 && B < 0)
return B < min - A;
if(A > 0 && B > 0)
return B > max - A;
return false;
We can reason about this as follows:
If A
and B
are opposite sign, they cannot overflow - the one greater than zero would need to be greater than max
or the one less than zero would need to be less than min
.
In the other cases, simple algebra suffices. A + B > max => B > max - A
will overflow if they are both positive. Otherwise if they are both negative, A + B < min => B < min - A
.
Mask the signs, cast to unsigned values, and perform the addition. If it's above 1 << (sizeof(int) * 8 - 1)
then you have an overflow.
int x, y;
if (sign(x) == sign(y)){
unsigned int ux = abs(x), uy = abs(y);
overflow = ux + uy >= (1 << (sizeof(int) * 8 - 1));
}
Better yet, let's write a template:
template <typename T>
bool overflow(signed T x, signed T y){
unsigned T ux = x, uy = y;
return ( sign(x) == sign(y) && (ux + uy >= (1 << (sizeof(T) * 8 - 1)));
}
Also, if you're only using it for debug, you can use the following 'hack' to read the overflow bit from the last operation directly (assuming your compiler/cpu supports this):
int flags;
_asm {
pushf // push flag register on the stack
pop flags // read the value from the stack
}
if (flags & 0x0800) // bit 11 - overflow
...