Clojure integer overflow

Question

I'm running Clojure 1.4.0. Why is it if I add Integer/MAX_VALUE and 1, I get a Long, but if I add Integer/MAX_VALUE to itself, I get an exception?

=> (def one 1)
=> (class one)
java.lang.Integer
=> (def max-plus-one (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE one))
=> max-plus-one
2147483648
=> (class max-plus-one)
java.lang.Long

=> (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE Integer/MAX_VALUE)
java.lang.ArithmeticException: integer overflow (NO_SOURCE_FILE:0)

Shouldn't they both act the same way? Why does adding two MAX_VALUE values overflows but adding 1 doesn't?

I've seen this SO question but they are getting different behaviour than I am.

raju-bitter · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-19 18:53:03Z

7

That's strange, I see different results with Clojure 1.4.0and Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_06-b24), on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit:

user=> *clojure-version*
{:major 1, :minor 4, :incremental 0, :qualifier nil}
user=> (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE Integer/MAX_VALUE)
4294967294
user=> (type 1)
java.lang.Long
user=> (def max-plus-one (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE one))
#'user/max-plus-one
user=> max-plus-one
2147483648
user=> (type max-plus-one)
java.lang.Long
user=> (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE Integer/MAX_VALUE)
4294967294

You can always check the Java classes which clojure.core uses for numerics, to see how the functionality is implemented:

The implementation of the + operator in:

(defn +
  "Returns the sum of nums. (+) returns 0. Does not auto-promote
  longs, will throw on overflow. See also: +'"
  {:inline (nary-inline 'add 'unchecked_add)
   :inline-arities >1?
   :added "1.2"}
  ([] 0)
  ([x] (cast Number x))
  ([x y] (. clojure.lang.Numbers (add x y)))
  ([x y & more]
     (reduce1 + (+ x y) more)))

Java implementation of adding longs:

final public Number add(Number x, Number y){
    return num(Numbers.add(x.longValue(),y.longValue()));
}

Edits: Tested with Clojure 1.2.1
I have done a quick test with Clojure 1.2.1, and with that version of Clojure I get exactly your behavior.

user=> *clojure-version*
{:major 1, :minor 2, :incremental 1, :qualifier ""}
user=> (def one 1)
#'user/one
user=> (class 1)
java.lang.Integer
user=> (def max-plus-one (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE one))
#'user/max-plus-one
user=> max-plus-one
2147483648
user=> (class max-plus-one)
java.lang.Long
user=> (+ Integer/MAX_VALUE Integer/MAX_VALUE)
java.lang.ArithmeticException: integer overflow (NO_SOURCE_FILE:0)

I'd say that you did the test with Clojure 1.2.x, and not with 1.4.0. What is the value of *clojure-version* in your REPL?

edited Aug 19, 2012 at 18:53

answered Aug 19, 2012 at 18:36

raju-bitter

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4 Comments

cdmckay Over a year ago

You're right: {:major 1, :minor 2, :incremental 1, :qualifier ""}. I have 1.4.0 installed but it appears the Sublime Text 2 REPL uses its own Clojure.

raju-bitter Over a year ago

I've had a similar experience in the past, when I had multiple versions of Clojure on my machine.

cdmckay Over a year ago

Yeah it looks like the SublimeREPL plugin runs lein repl which is loading up Clojure 1.2.1 for some reason.

cdmckay Over a year ago

Ok, for people curious as to why the version of lein repl is different than your clj version: github.com/technomancy/leiningen/issues/337 and stackoverflow.com/questions/10135440/…

sw1nn · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-19 21:17:44Z

Looks like you have your answer, but here are a few other interesting points:

java (all versions) and clojure's (>1.3.0) default behaviour differ in their behaviour wrt overflow

in java

(Long.MAX_VALUE + 1) == Long.MIN_VALUE
(Integer.MAX_VALUE + 1) == Integer.MIN_VALUE

// cast required to avoid promoting to int
(Byte.MAX_VALUE + (byte)1) == Byte.MIN_VALUE

This is because arithmetic wraps by default on the jvm

in clojure (>1.3.0)

(inc Long.MAX_VALUE) 
   => ArithmeticOverflow

(inc Integer/MAX_VALUE) 
   => a long with value Integer/MAX_VALUE + 1
(int (inc Integer/MAX_VALUE)) 
   => IllegalArgumentException Value 
      out of range for int: 2147483648

clojure does have versions of some ops that behave like java

(unchecked-inc Long.MAX_VALUE) => Long.MIN_VALUE

You can make the unchecked operations the default by setting *unchecked-math* to true

(set! *unchecked-math* true)
(inc Long/MAX_VALUE) 
    => (Long.MIN_VALUE)
(int (inc Integer/MAX_VALUE)) 
    => (Integer.MIN_VALUE) of type Integer

There are lots of other interesting (unchecked-*) operations.

Arthur Ulfeldt · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-19 18:33:49Z

1

As of version 1.3.0 Clojure uses Longs for all primitive numbers. you just need to use larger numbers to get the overflow.

 (def max-plus-one (+ Long/MAX_VALUE one))

edited Aug 19, 2012 at 18:33

answered Aug 19, 2012 at 18:24

Arthur Ulfeldt

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1 Comment

raju-bitter Over a year ago

The strange thing is that (class 1) or (type 1) seems to return 'java.lang.integer' instead of long in cdmckay's case. If he's running Clojure 1.4.0, that shouldn't happen.

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