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What is the significance of a "floating-point exception" in C, and how can I manage it?

Sandra Emily21609-Aug-2023

What is the significance of a "floating-point exception" in C, and how can I manage it?

C Languageexception error c language 
Updated on 16-Aug-2023
Sandra Emily

Sandra Emily

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Aryan Kumar

Aryan Kumar

16-Aug-2023

A floating point exception in C is a signal that is raised when a floating-point operation results in an invalid value. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:

  • Dividing by zero
  • Taking the square root of a negative number
  • Overflowing the range of a floating-point number
  • Underflowing the range of a floating-point number

When a floating point exception occurs, the program will typically crash. There are a few ways to manage floating point exceptions:

  • Use a try-catch block. The try-catch block is a way to handle errors in C. The try block contains the code that might cause an error, and the catch block handles the error.

Here is an example of how to use a try-catch block to handle a floating point exception:

C

void foo() {
  try {
    // Code that might cause an error
  } catch (const std::exception& e) {
    // Handle the error
    std::cout << "Floating point exception!" << std::endl;
  }
}
  • Use a signal handler. A signal handler is a function that is called when a signal is raised. You can use a signal handler to handle floating point exceptions.

Here is an example of how to use a signal handler to handle a floating point exception:

C

void handler(int signal) {
  // Handle the floating point exception
  std::cout << "Floating point exception!" << std::endl;
}

int main() {
  signal(SIGFPE, handler);

  // Code that might cause a floating point exception
}
  • Disable floating point exceptions. You can disable floating point exceptions by setting the FE_INVALID flag in the feclearexcept() function.

Here is an example of how to disable floating point exceptions:

C

feclearexcept(FE_INVALID);

// Code that might cause a floating point exception

Here are some additional things to keep in mind when managing floating point exceptions:

  • Be careful about using functions that might cause floating point exceptions. For example, the sin() function can cause a floating point exception if the argument is outside the range of valid values.
  • Use a debugger to find out why a floating point exception occurred. This can help you to avoid the error in the future.
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