How can I check if multiplying two numbers in Java will cause an overflow?

Question

I want to handle the special case where multiplying two numbers together causes an overflow. The code looks something like this:

int a = 20;
long b = 30;

// if a or b are big enough, this result will silently overflow
long c = a * b;

That's a simplified version - in the real app, a and b are sourced elsewhere at runtime. What I want to achieve is something like this:

long c;
if (a * b will overflow) {
    c = Long.MAX_VALUE;
} else {
    c = a * b;
}

How do you suggest I best code this?

Update: a and b are always non-negative in my scenario.

Answer 1

Maybe:

if(b!= 0 && a * b / b != a) //overflow

Not sure about this "solution".

Edit: Added b != 0.

Before you downvote: a * b / b won't be optimized. This would be compiler bug. I do still not see a case where the overflow bug can be masked.

Answer 2

You could use java.math.BigInteger instead and check the size of the result (haven't tested the code):

BigInteger bigC = BigInteger.valueOf(a) * multiply(BigInteger.valueOf(b));
if(bigC.compareTo(BigInteger.valueOf(Long.MAX_VALUE)) > 0) {
  c = Long.MAX_VALUE;
} else {
  c = bigC.longValue()
}

Answer 3

Hi

Use logarithms to check the size of the result.

Mark

Answer 4

Does Java has something like int.MaxValue? If yes, then try

if (b != 0 && Math.abs(a) > Math.abs(Long.MAX_VALUE / b))
{
 // it will overflow
}

edit: seen Long.MAX_VALUE in question

Answer 5

If a and b are both positive then you can use:

if (a != 0 && b > Long.MAX_VALUE / a) {
    // Overflow
}

If you need to deal with both positive and negative numbers then it's more complicated:

long maximum = Math.sign(a) == Math.sign(b) ? Long.MAX_VALUE : Long.MIN_VALUE;

if (a != 0 && (b > 0 && b > maximum / a ||
               b < 0 && b < maximum / a))
{
    // Overflow
}

Here's a little table I whipped up to check this, pretending that overflow happens at -10 or +10:

a =  5   b =  2     2 >  10 /  5
a =  2   b =  5     5 >  10 /  2
a = -5   b =  2     2 > -10 / -5
a = -2   b =  5     5 > -10 / -2
a =  5   b = -2    -2 < -10 /  5
a =  2   b = -5    -5 < -10 /  2
a = -5   b = -2    -2 <  10 / -5
a = -2   b = -5    -5 <  10 / -2

Answer 6

To Austin Kelley Way: Java has no unsigned data types.

Answer 7

I am not sure why nobody is looking at solution like :

if (Long.MAX_VALUE/a > b) { // overflows }

Choose a to be larger of the two numbers.

Answer 8

maybe this will help you:

/**
 * @throws ArithmeticException on integer overflow
 */
static long multiply(long a, long b) {
    double c = (double) a * b;
    long d = a * b;

    if ((long) c != d) {
        throw new ArithmeticException("int overflow");
    } else {
        return d;
    }
}