ArithmeticException & Infinity

[Bhalchandra Kalloorkar]

Hi,
When int a = 1/0; is given ArithmeticException is thrown whereas when float a = 1.0f/0.0f it gives answer as Infinity. Why?

Bhalchandra.

[Henry Wong]

Bhalchandra Kalloorkar wrote:Hi,
When int a = 1/0; is given ArithmeticException is thrown whereas when float a = 1.0f/0.0f it gives answer as Infinity. Why?

Bhalchandra.

Java ints follow the two's complement standard -- which most languages / processors follow. There is no definition of infinity in the standard.

Java floats follow the IEEE 754 standard -- which most languages / processors follow. And that standard defines the result of a positive number divided by positive zero as positive infinity.

Henry

[Campbell Ritchie]

And welcome to the Ranch

Remember there are three kinds of arithmetic: integer, floating‑point and decimal (as used by BigDecimal). They all have different rules. You can read about them in the BigDecimal documentation and the Java Language Specification.

That may not be easy to read, however.