Re: Formula Question -- RPG400-L


On 05/01/2006, at 3:29 PM, Bob Cozzi wrote:

0 / 0 = Undefined?

Yes, as in no answer. 0/0 is no different from 1/0. Division by zero isnonsense because it has the peculiar side effect of making all numbersthe same.

I know X / 0 = undefined. When X > 0.


Doesn't matter whether X > 0. The Division Algorithm is:

For integers a and b, with b > 0, there exist unique integers q and rsuch that a=bq+r, where 0 ≤ r < b.In the division of a by b, the number q is the quotient and r is theremainder.

Point to note is the requirement for b > 0 (although really it can benegative, just not zero). a can be any integer +ve, -ve, or zero.

But I thought 0 / 0 = Indeterminate


Indeterminate is not 1 which is what you originally stated.

In the example here I presume you are using 0/0 as an "indeterminateform" as is used in calculating limits of functions. In this case itdoesn't mean zero divided by zero but is rather a symbol indicating anindeterminate form of which there are a few ∞/∞ (or inf/inf) beinganother one of them.

To keep this related to RPG the RPG runtime will issue a program errorwith status code 00102 when division by zero is encountered but it'sbetter to check beforehand if such an operation is likely (or useMONITOR to catch it).


Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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