Is INT_MIN-1 an underflow or overflow?

Posted by Johannes Schaub - litb on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Johannes Schaub - litb
Published on 2010-12-31T14:16:52Z Indexed on 2010/12/31 14:58 UTC
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I seem to remember that I was reading that

  • underflow means you have a too small magnitude that cannot be presented anymore in a type
  • overflow means you have a too large magnitude that cannot be presented anymore in a type

However, in practice I perceive that the terms are used such that

  • underflow means you have a too small value that cannot be presented anymore in a type
  • overflow means you have a too large value that cannot be presented anymore in a type

What is the correct meaning to use here? Are the terms defined differently for integer and floating point types?

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