ZeroDivisionError

ZeroDivisionError is raised when attempting to divide an integer by zero. Note that dividing floats by zero returns Infinity instead of raising an error.

Common causes

• Dividing by a variable that becomes zero
• Calculating percentages with zero total
• Array/collection operations resulting in zero divisor
• User input resulting in zero

How to fix it

• Check for zero before dividing: b != 0 ? a / b : 0
• Use Float for Infinity behavior: a / b.to_f
• Provide default values for zero cases
• Validate input before calculations
• Use rescue to handle the error gracefully

Example

# Error example
10 / 0  # => ZeroDivisionError: divided by 0

# Fix with check
divisor = 0
result = divisor != 0 ? 10 / divisor : 0

# Float returns Infinity
10 / 0.0  # => Infinity

# Rescue approach
begin
  10 / divisor
rescue ZeroDivisionError
  0
end

Related errors