Editing Arithmetic underflow (section)

==Handling of underflow==
The occurrence of an underflow may set a ("sticky") status bit, raise an exception, at the hardware level generate an interrupt, or may cause some combination of these effects.

As specified in [[IEEE 754]], the underflow condition is only signaled if there is also a loss of precision. Typically this is determined as the final result being inexact.
However, if the user is [[trap (computing)|trapping]] on underflow, this may happen regardless of consideration for loss of precision. The default handling in IEEE 754 for underflow (as well as other exceptions) is to record as a floating-point status that underflow has occurred. This is specified for the application-programming level, but often also interpreted as how to handle it at the hardware level.