Number Overflow Issue

[spacesailor24]

Updates the use of hexToNumber to outputBigNumberFormatter (which returns a number string instead of a number)

This currently doesn't update other potentially problematic places such as here and here

Fixes #3745, #3912, #3829, and #3936
Supersedes #3789 and #3948

Notes

• This is a breaking change since it updates returns values from numbers to number strings, hence the base branch is 3.x
• A testing repo that uses problematic code from Error while decode transaction gas: "Number can only safely store up to 53 bits" #3745 and web3.eth.getBlock() throw Error: Number can only safely store up to 53 bits #3912 can be found [here[(https://github.com/spacesailor24/web3-3976)

[render]

Your Render PR Server URL is https://web3-js-pr-3976.onrender.com.

Follow its progress at https://dashboard.render.com/static/srv-c1ei0drjbvm4aeg36750.

[alstjd0921]

Currently, no errors are being seen anywhere other than the process of formatting the gas value. I think it's too radical a change.

[spacesailor24]

@alstjd0921 Thank you for commenting/reviewing the code, this was actually a point of discussion I wanted to have:

I've tested your #3948 against the test repo I made, and it does pass using your branch, so presumably it fixes all the mentioned issues.

However, even though changing one field is more desirable that forcing users to update multiple fields, I want to avoid having to make another breaking change in the future where some field related to gas overflows. So, I would like to keep any updates I've made to fields pertaining to gas, but revert other changes like block.number or transactionIndex, as they probably won't come near exceeding JavaScript's max integer.

To be specific, the fields I want to remain returning number strings are: gas, cumulativeGasUsed, gasUsed, and gasLimit (I will be updating this PR accordingly after this comment)

How do you (and anyone else reading this) feel about this?

P.s. in the rewrite we've started, we will be using the native BigInt, so this won't be a problem going forward

[spacesailor24]

Blocked by #3982

[alstjd0921]

@spacesailor24 As you said, it seems desirable to limit the problem to gas-related things.
I think it makes sense now. I was just concerned about the change of unrelated with gas overflow (e.g., timestamp, index, or other things) in commit a687dde.

[spacesailor24]

@alstjd0921 if you want to merge this, then we could merge your #3948

[coveralls]

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 706496265

• 5 of 6 (83.33%) changed or added relevant lines in 1 file are covered.
• 247 unchanged lines in 8 files lost coverage.
• Overall coverage increased (+2.5%) to 75.95%

---

Changes Missing Coverage	Covered Lines	Changed/Added Lines	%
packages/web3-core-helpers/src/formatters.js	5	6	83.33%

Files with Coverage Reduction	New Missed Lines	%
packages/web3-core-requestmanager/src/jsonrpc.js	1	70.0%
packages/web3-core-helpers/src/formatters.js	10	78.88%
packages/web3-core-helpers/lib/formatters.js	19	81.52%
packages/web3-utils/src/utils.js	27	10.74%
packages/web3-core-helpers/src/errors.js	29	1.56%
packages/web3-utils/src/soliditySha3.js	34	3.92%
packages/web3-utils/src/index.js	42	32.12%
packages/web3-eth-accounts/src/index.js	85	33.06%

Totals
Change from base Build 706495893:	2.5%
Covered Lines:	3108
Relevant Lines:	3877

---

💛 - Coveralls

[alstjd0921]

@spacesailor24
I merged this but seems like some checks were broken. Should i handle it?

[spacesailor24]

@alstjd0921 Thought I fixed all the tests, but missed the CI ones. I'm going to work on getting those fixed today

[spacesailor24]

Am now just realizing that the failing tests are a result of pulling the ganache-core repo and running their tests, so I'm trying to figure out what to do about that because of the breaking change

[spacesailor24]

So the plan will be to merge this, branch off develop, update the tests, then target the branch for failing check

[frankiebee]

Wool woop

[spacesailor24]

The was merged with failing ganache-core tests. I updated most of the failing tests in this, but there were 3 remaining that seem to need actual core code to be updated

[sebsobseb]

Am I correct that the actual hexToNumber util method remains the same? It will still return a number?

For example, this check with triple equals will not be impacted? :
web3.util.hexToNumber("0x4") === 4