Editing Bounds checking (section)

{{Short description|In programming, detecting whether a variable is within given bounds before use}}
{{more footnotes|date=March 2012}}
In [[computer programming]], '''bounds checking''' is any method of detecting whether a [[variable (programming)|variable]] is within some [[upper and lower bounds|bounds]] before it is used. It is usually used to ensure that a number fits into a given type (range checking), or that a variable being used as an [[Array data structure|array]] index is within the bounds of the array (index checking). A failed bounds check usually results in the generation of some sort of [[Exception handling|exception]] signal.

As performing bounds checking during each use can be time-consuming, it is not always done. [[Bounds-checking elimination]] is a [[compiler optimization]] technique that eliminates unneeded bounds checking.