Why this specific operation overflow (cf. CS0220) in C#?

Question

I try to construct a big Int64 with nibble information stored in bytes.

The following lines of code work as expected:

Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", (Int64)(0x0d * 0x100000000));
Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", (Int64)(0x0d * 0x1000000));
Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", (Int64)(0x0d * 0x100000));

Why does the following line lead to a compile error CS0220 "The operation overflows at compile time in checked mode" and the others do not?

Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", (Int64)(0x0d * 0x10000000));

The result would be:

FFFFFFFFD0000000

instead of:

0000D0000000

Can anyone explain this? I will now convert with shift operators, but still curious why this approach does not work!

Update: The error also occurs when using (Int64)(0x0d << 28).

Noldorin · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-03 09:53:23Z

3

You need to mark the constant values specifically as longs (Int64s) or possibly ulongs (UInt64s), otherwise by default they will be interpreter as ints (i.e. Int32s), clearly causing overflows. Casting after the multiplication operation won't do you any good in this case.

Haven't tested, but this code should work:

Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", 0x0dL * 0x100000000L);
Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", 0x0dL * 0x1000000L);
Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", 0x0dL * 0x100000L);

answered Apr 3, 2009 at 9:53

Noldorin

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1 Comment

Denis Vuyka Over a year ago

You were faster! Was finishing the same answer when the reply appeared. +1. Totally agree to your answer :)

Richard · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-03 09:53:48Z

1

Integer literals have type Int32 (even if in hex). Use the "L" suffix to make them longs (Int64).

Console.WriteLine("{0:X12}", 0x0dL * 0x100000000L);

answered Apr 3, 2009 at 9:53

Richard

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Comments

NuclearDog · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-03 09:52:27Z

-1

First glance I'd guess that it's doing the multiplication with a Int32, and overflowing. You need to cast the individual operands to Int64 then multiply those. Right now you're only casting the result.

That said, I don't know why it would only find issue with that one line and not the first one with the larger number.

ND

answered Apr 3, 2009 at 9:52

NuclearDog

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1 Comment

Richard Over a year ago

-1: Cast requires the compiler/JIT to optimize out the runtime conversion. Better to use a long literal to start with.

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