overflow and underflow in solidity

Hello readers, in this article I will be explaining explicitly overflow and underflow in solidity. Before I define what overflow and underflow are, you need to know about unsigned integer(uint). Overflow and underflow happens because of uint and reason being that uint in solidity has a maximum and minimum value which are 0 ≤ x ≤ 2**256 -1.

0 ≤ x ≤  2**256 -1

The above means the range of uint is between zero and 2 raise to power of 256 -1. Now let me define what an overflow is.

Definition of an overflow

An overflow will happen in solidity if the maximum value of uint is exceeded for example if just 1 is added to 2**256 -1, it will cause an overflow.

Definition of an underflow

An underflow happens in solidity if the minimum value of uint is exceeded for example the minimum value is zero, if just 1 is removed from zero, it will lead to an underflow.

Let write a code to practicalize this.

pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

contract Adisotech{

   uint public zero =0;
   uint public max = 2**256 -1;
}

Declare two state variables, named zero and max respectively. Their data-type is uint and they are set to public. Equate zero to 0 and max to the maximum number.

Next is to create a function named increasemaxby1 which will add one to the max in order to cause an overflow.

function increasemaxby1() public {
max = max +1;
   }

Brilliant, the next step is to crease function decreasezeroby1 which will remove 1 from zero in order to cause an underflow.

function decreasezeroby1() public {
       zero = zero - 1;
   }

Congratulations, you have completed the code for overflow and underflow in solidity. Here is the full code.

pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

contract Adisotech{

   uint public zero =0;
   uint public max = 2**256 -1;

   function increasemaxby1() public {
max = max +1;
   }

   function decreasezeroby1() public {
       zero = zero - 1;
   }
}