Thread by @swapnakpanda

How is "Divide by Zero" handled in JavaScript?

🧵

➊ Why is "Divide by Zero" special?

Let's say

a ÷ 0 = y
⇒ a = y × 0
⇒ a = 0

It means

⬔ a non-zero number can never be divided by zero

⬕ as any number multiplied by zero is zero, 0 ÷ 0 is also indeterminate

➋ How do programming languages handle it?

❑ As we saw above, division by zero in every scenario is indeterminate.

❒ Many programming languages consider it a special case and throws error/exception at runtime.

❑ To handle, we need to catch the error.

➌ "Divide by Zero" in JavaScript

❑ JavaScript is unique in the league and handles it differently

❒ JavaScript doesn't throw any error. Then?

⬖ 0 / 0 ⇒ NaN
⬘ Positive Number / 0 ⇒ Infinity
⬗ Negative Number / 0 ⇒ -Infinity

➍ Why does JavaScript handle this way?

❑ One reason could be because JavaScript is dynamic typed.

❒ "/" operation coerces non-numbers to numbers.

❑ Throwing some exception at runtime would have been inconvenient.

Do you see any other reason? Reply 💬

With this we come to the end of this 🧵 where we discussed about "Divide by Zero operation in JavaScript".

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