what's wrong with this program

Question

I've a code snippet:

class WhileTest
{
    public static void main(String s[])
    {
        int x=12;
        while(x<13)
        {
            x--;
        }
        System.out.println(x);
    }
}

The output of the above program is: 2147483647

Why so?

Code on ideone

`x` wraps around at 0, becomes negative, and the loop finally stops when `x` becomes positive again at 0x7FFFFFFF (2147483647, which is >= 13). — Michael, Sep 19 '13 at 11:18
@MohammadFaisal Your question or the result? Is this for an assignment or a test? — Daniel, Sep 19 '13 at 11:21
@Daniel: for question, a good title. No, its not a test. Actually I'd not thought of the situation of overflow — Mohammad Faisal, Sep 19 '13 at 11:22

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:17

10

x is decremented and then underflows reaching Integer.MAX_VALUE

answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:17

Reimeus

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:18

Note that x = 12, and you keep subtracting. This results in x always being less than 13. That is until Integer Overflow occurs (when x gets to the lowest possible int (Integer.MIN_VALUE)), and the number wraps around to the maximum possible integer (Integer.MAX_VALUE) which is greater than 13 and the loop ends.

Philipp Sander · Answer 3 · 2013-09-19T11:45:12.467

1

you decrease x each iteration.

when x = -2147483648 (which is the MIN_VALUE of Integer) the next step of x-- will set x = +2147483647 (which is the MAX_VALUE of Integer) because of the overflow (or underflow, however you call it).

and since 2147483647 < 13 = false you will see the println

edited Sep 19 '13 at 11:45

answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:18

Philipp Sander

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int x=-2147483647; x--; System.out.println(x); For this piece of code i received output as `-2147483648`. Why this is not `+2147483647`. – Gaurav Gupta Sep 19 '13 at 11:35
sorry that was a typo! integer min = -2147483648 of course. thanks for pointing that out – Philipp Sander Sep 19 '13 at 11:45

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:27

Each iteration reduces the size of x, so theoretically x will never be greater than or equal to 13, right?

Sure, if ints behave just like integers. But they don't. Int's have a maximum and minimum size, because of how they stored in your computer. In Java, an int is a 32-bit signed number; an int's maximum size is 2^31-1; it's minimum size is -2^31.

What happens when x is the minimum size, -2^31, in that loop? -2^31 - 1 < 13, so why does the loop condition fail? That number can't be represented by an int. The way ints behave is that they wrap around.

int x = Integer.MIN_VALUE; // x = -2^31
x--;
x == Integer.MAX_VALUE; //True. x == 2^31-1

2^21 - 1 is larger than 13, and the loop condition fails. The print statement is run when x is Integer.MAX_VALUE. And what is the value of 2^31 - 1? 2147483647

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:18

0

The int value goes to Integer.MIN_VALUE, underflows and goes to Integer.MAX_VALUE which is what you're seeing.

answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:18

Kayaman

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what's wrong with this program

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