The central theme of this three-page discussion is the detection and proper handling of the potential for overflow in the context of converting an integer from its human-readable character string representation to an equivalent representation (e.g., two’s complement) more suitable for manipulation by computer.

After decrying the high frequency with which this problem is overlooked or given inadequate treatment (by computing professionals as well as by students]), the author presents and proves a proposition from which a Boolean expression that correctly detects such ovrflow potential is derived. A PASCAL code fragment incorporating this expression is presented, but it is only valid for positive integers. The case of negative integers is discussed, but it is left to the reader to integrate the separate treatment of the positive-and negative-integer cases.

Seven “references” are listed, only three of which are cited in the body of this brief paper. While additional citations and references would have been appreciated (e.g., to substantiate further the claim that “over 25 programs [were] examined . . . only one [of] which correctly checked for overflow”), this quite readable article is recommended to students and practitioners alike.