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Division by Zero

Division by zero is a runtime error in Desi. Both integer and float division by zero cause the program to panic.

Behavior

let x = 10 / 0      # Panics!
let y = 10.0 / 0.0  # Panics!
let z = 10 % 0      # Panics! (modulo also checks)

When dividing by zero: 1. Error message printed to stderr: panic: integer division by zero 2. Program exits with code 1

Why Panic?

Unlike some languages that return inf or NaN for float division by zero, Desi treats all division by zero as an error because:

  1. Safety: Silent corruption (returning 0 or inf) can cause bugs that are hard to track down
  2. Consistency: Same behavior for int and float makes the language predictable
  3. Explicitness: Errors should be visible, not hidden

Safe Division

Check before dividing: 

def safe_divide(a: int, b: int) -> int:
    if b == 0:
        print("Cannot divide by zero", file=sys.stderr)
        return 0
    return a / b

Future: Result Types

In future versions, Desi may offer a checked_div function. This is a sketch, not working code:

let result = checked_div(10, 0)   # Returns Result<int, DivError>
let msg = match result:
    Result.Ok(v): str(v)
    Result.Err(e): e
print(msg)

See Also