In today's article we'll continue our travels through the PHP Exception Handling series with a closer look at the DivisionByZeroError. As you might suspect, the DivisionByZeroError is (sometimes) thrown when attempting to divide a value by zero. The challenge is the caveat of "sometimes", because this particular error might not be thrown as often as you think.
We'll start by looking at where the DivisionByZeroError sits in the PHP Exception Hierarchy, before moving on to some functional code samples that illustrate when DivisionByZeroErrors will (and won't) be thrown, so let's get going!
The Technical Rundown
- All PHP errors implement the
Throwableinterface, or are extended from another inherited class therein. Errorimplements theThrowableinterface.ArithmeticErrorextends theErrorclass.- Finally,
DivisionByZeroErrorextends theArithmeticError.
When Should You Use It?
Most of us are familiar with the trouble that comes when trying to divide by zero. From playing with our calculator back in school days to modern programming and development, the fact remains that attempting to divide by zero is always considered undefined. Since it does us no good to dwell any further on why that is the case, let's jump right into our code sample and see how DivisionByZeroErrors are commonly thrown in the realm of PHP, and what we can (and cannot) do to handle them:
<!--?php // Set error reporting level. error_reporting(E_ERROR); function executeExamples() { // Modulo by 3. modulo(10, 3); Logging::LineSeparator(); // Modulo by zero. modulo(10, 0); Logging::LineSeparator(); // Divide by 2. divide(10, 2); Logging::LineSeparator(); // Divide by zero. divide(10, 0); // Divide by 2. performIntDiv(15, 2); Logging::LineSeparator(); // Divide by zero. performIntDiv(15, 0); } function divide($dividend, $divisor) { try { // Perform the operation. $result = $dividend / $divisor; Logging::Log("Division result of ($dividend / $divisor): $result"); } catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) { // Output expected ArithmeticError. Logging::Log($error); } catch (Error $error) { // Output any unexpected errors. Logging::Log($error, false); } } function modulo($dividend, $divisor) { try { // Perform the operation. $result = $dividend % $divisor; Logging::Log("Modulo result of ($dividend % $divisor): $result"); } catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) { // Output expected ArithmeticError. Logging::Log($error); } catch (Error $error) { // Output any unexpected errors. Logging::Log($error, false); } } function performIntDiv($dividend, $divisor) { try { // Perform the operation. $result = intdiv($dividend, $divisor); Logging::Log("Modulo result of ($dividend % $divisor): $result"); } catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) { // Output expected ArithmeticError. Logging::Log($error); } catch (Error $error) { // Output any unexpected errors. Logging::Log($error, false); } } executeExamples(); require('kint.php'); /** * Provides basic logging/output functionality. */ class Logging { /** * Logs the passed object, string, or Throwable instance to the console. * * @param $a Primary message or value to be logged. * @param null $b Secondary value, such as boolean for Throwables indicating if error was expected. */ public static function Log($a, $b = null) { if (is_string($a)) { Logging::LogString($a); } elseif ($a instanceof Throwable) { Logging::LogThrowable($a, is_null($b) ? true : $b); } else { Logging::LogObject($a); } } /** * Logs the passed object. * * @param $object Object to be logged. * * @see https://github.com/kint-php/kint Kint tool used for structured outputs. */ private static function LogObject($object) { Kint::dump($object); } /** * Logs the passed string value. * * @param $value Value to be logged. */ private static function LogString($value) { print_r("{$value}\n"); } /** * Logs the passed Throwable object. * Includes message, className if error was expected, and stack trace. * * Uses internal Reflection to retrieve protected/private properties. * * @param $throwable Throwable object to be output. * @param bool $expected Indicates if error was expected or not. */ private static function LogThrowable($throwable, bool $expected = true) { $expected = $expected ? "EXPECTED" : "UNEXPECTED"; $message = substr($throwable->xdebug_message, 1);<br ?--> // Output whether error was expected or not, the class name, the message, and stack trace.
print_r("[{$expected}] {$message}\n");
// Add line separator to keep it tidy.
self::LineSeparator();
}
/**
* Outputs a separator line to log.
*
* @param int $length Length of the line separator.
* @param string $character Character to use as separator.
*/
public static function LineSeparator(int $length = 40, string $character = '-') {
$break = str_repeat($character, $length);
print_r("{$break}\n");
}
}
Let's begin with our modulo() function, which accepts two parameters and performs a division of the two before spitting out any remainder:
function modulo($dividend, $divisor) {
try {
// Perform the operation.
$result = $dividend % $divisor;
Logging::Log("Modulo result of ($dividend % $divisor): $result");
} catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) {
// Output expected ArithmeticError.
Logging::Log($error);
} catch (Error $error) {
// Output any unexpected errors.
Logging::Log($error, false);
}
}
To test these out we've made two calls to modulo(): The first using 10 and 3, while the second uses 10 and 0:
// Modulo by 3.
modulo(10, 3);
Logging::LineSeparator();
// Modulo by zero.
modulo(10, 0);
Logging::LineSeparator();
The log output shows us that the first invocation works just fine, while the second call throws a DivisionByZeroError, which we were able to successfully catch as intended:
Modulo result of (10 % 3): 1
----------------------------------------
[EXPECTED] DivisionByZeroError: Modulo by zero in /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php on line 41
Call Stack:
0.0002 368520 1. {main}() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:0
0.0058 1668352 2. executeExamples() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:52
0.0058 1668384 3. modulo() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:21
Now let's try our divide() function, which behaves much the same way, but attempts a straight division instead of a modulo operation:
function divide($dividend, $divisor) {
try {
// Perform the operation.
$result = $dividend / $divisor;
Logging::Log("Division result of ($dividend / $divisor): $result");
} catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) {
// Output expected ArithmeticError.
Logging::Log($error);
} catch (Error $error) {
// Output any unexpected errors.
Logging::Log($error, false);
}
}
This time we'll pass in 10 and 2 the first time, along with 10 and 0 again the second call:
// Divide by 2.
divide(10, 2);
Logging::LineSeparator();
// Divide by zero.
divide(10, 0);
Again, the first call behaves as expected and outputs our result, but the second call is a little bewildering. Even though we clearly performed a division operation using a divisor of zero, no DivisionByZeroError is thrown. Instead, the $result of the calculation merely returns as INF:
Division result of (10 / 2): 5
----------------------------------------
Division result of (10 / 0): INF
Strange, what gives? Keen observers may have noticed we explicitly set the error reporting level at the top of our script to only include the E_ERROR flag, which is described in the documentation as including only "Fatal run-time errors." As it turns out, PHP doesn't consider straight up division by zero, as we saw in our second divide() call above, to be a fatal run-time error. Instead, it considers it a warning, which can be seen if we include the E_WARNING flag in our error_reporting() function call at the top:
error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING);
Now, when we rerun our two divide() calls we still get the same INF $result of the second call, but we also see a PHP Warning indicating that there was an attempt to divide by zero:
Division result of (10 / 2): 5
----------------------------------------
PHP Warning: Division by zero in /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php on line 34
PHP Stack trace:
PHP 1. {main}() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:0
PHP 2. executeExamples() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:74
PHP 3. divide() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:13
Division result of (10 / 0): INF
The last thing we'll try is calling the built-in intdiv() function by using our performIntDiv() wrapper function:
function performIntDiv($dividend, $divisor)
{
try {
// Perform the operation.
$result = intdiv($dividend, $divisor);
Logging::Log("Modulo result of ($dividend % $divisor): $result");
} catch (DivisionByZeroError $error) {
// Output expected ArithmeticError.
Logging::Log($error);
} catch (Error $error) {
// Output any unexpected errors.
Logging::Log($error, false);
}
}//...
// Divide by 2.
performIntDiv(15, 2);
Logging::LineSeparator();// Divide by zero.
performIntDiv(15, 0);
//...
As it happens, intdiv() behaves much the same as a modulo, meaning it will also throw an actual DivisionByZeroError when a value of zero is provided as the second argument, as shown by the output from above:
Modulo result of (15 % 2): 7
----------------------------------------
[EXPECTED] DivisionByZeroError: Division by zero in /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php on line 63
Call Stack:
0.0002 369792 1. {main}() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:0
0.0164 1669624 2. executeExamples() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:74
0.0164 1669656 3. performIntDiv() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:28
0.0164 1669656 4. intdiv() /media/sf_Airbrake.io/Exceptions/PHP/Error/ArithmeticError/DivisionByZeroError/code.php:63
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