Why does the Go compiler throw an error for dividing a float by zero instead of a warning?

Go Compiler Error for Float Zero Division

Go programmers may encounter a compiler error when dividing a floating-point number by zero, as illustrated in the code snippet below:

<code class="go">func main() {
    var y float64 = 0.0
    var x float64 = 4.0 / y
    fmt.Println(x)
}</code>

This code will return an error similar to:

prog.go:9:22: division by zero

Understanding the Error

One may question why the compiler produces an error instead of printing a compiler warning. The answer lies in the nature of numeric constants in Go.

Precision of Numeric Constants

Go numeric constants have arbitrary precision and do not overflow. This means they cannot represent IEEE-754 values such as infinity or -0.

Division by Zero

Division by zero is an undefined operation in mathematics and would lead to infinity in IEEE-754. However, since Go numeric constants lack representation for infinity, the compiler treats division by zero as an error to avoid undefined situations in the code.

Alternatives for Infinity

If one needs infinity value for calculations, they can use the math.Inf function. For example:

<code class="go">var x float64 = math.Inf(1)</code>

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