underflow - meaning and definition. What is underflow
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What (who) is underflow - definition

CONDITION IN PROGRAMMING WHERE A CALCULATED VALUE IS TOO SMALL TO BE REPRESENTED IN MEMORY
Underflow

underflow         
¦ noun
1. an undercurrent.
a horizontal flow of water through the ground.
2. Computing the generation of a number that is too small to be represented in the device meant to store it.
underflow         
<programming> (or "floating point underflow", "floating underflow", after "overflow") A condition that can occur when the result of a floating-point operation would be smaller in magnitude (closer to zero, either positive or negative) than the smallest quantity representable. Underflow is actually (negative) overflow of the exponent of the floating point quantity. For example, an eight-bit {twos complement} exponent can represent multipliers of 2^-128 to 2^127. A result less than 2^-128 would cause underflow. Depending on the processor, the programming language and the run-time system, underflow may set a status bit, raise an exception or generate a hardware interrupt or some combination of these effects. Alternatively, it may just be ignored and zero substituted for the unrepresentable value, though this might lead to a later divide by zero error which cannot be so easily ignored. (2006-11-09)
Arithmetic underflow         
The term arithmetic underflow (also floating point underflow, or just underflow) is a condition in a computer program where the result of a calculation is a number of more precise absolute value than the computer can actually represent in memory on its central processing unit (CPU).

Wikipedia

Arithmetic underflow

The term arithmetic underflow (also floating point underflow, or just underflow) is a condition in a computer program where the result of a calculation is a number of more precise absolute value than the computer can actually represent in memory on its central processing unit (CPU).

Arithmetic underflow can occur when the true result of a floating point operation is smaller in magnitude (that is, closer to zero) than the smallest value representable as a normal floating point number in the target datatype. Underflow can in part be regarded as negative overflow of the exponent of the floating point value. For example, if the exponent part can represent values from −128 to 127, then a result with a value less than −128 may cause underflow.

Storing values that are too low in an integer variable (e.g., attempting to store −1 in an unsigned integer) is properly referred to as integer overflow, or more broadly, integer wraparound. The term underflow normally refers to floating point numbers only, which is a separate issue. It is not possible in most floating-point designs to store a too-low value, as usually they are signed and have a negative infinity value.