What is divide by zero rule.

tanaya.deshpande@tieto.co · Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:30 am

What is divide by zero rule?
Why is it implimented ?
How is it implimented?

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:19 am

Not really any kind of explicit DataStage question, is it? So...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero

tanaya.deshpande@tieto.co · Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:22 am

well yes it is a Datastage question ...
In the past I had implimented this ..but now I have forgotten

battaliou · Post by **battaliou** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:25 am

I guess in a transformer you're looking at something like:
if NullToZero(Aggregated.ITEMTOT) + 0 then 0 else Aggregated.ITEMTOT/Aggregated.ITEMTOT

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:29 am

tanaya.deshpande@tieto.co wrote:well yes it is a Datastage question ...

Not the way you phrased it. Add in a specific example or a DataStage error or problem you are seeing and then I'd agree. Otherwise it's just an excercise in Googling.

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:06 am

In the old days of assmebler dumps, we mainframers would flinch every time we saw a SOC7 error, which usually happens when our code tries to divide by zero (It's not my fault! It's the data!)

I coworker just this morning told the story of when he asked "What's a SOC4?" His mentor didn't miss a beat, and answered "It's what you put on your foot in the morning."

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:11 am

The simplest answer to the question "What is divide by zero rule"? Don't

jwiles · Post by **jwiles** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:13 am

And I still use my yellow card to this day...

In addition to the divide-by-zero, S0C7 also came around because of invalid packed decimal data

. Ah, the fun of tracing subroutine calls via R14 through a DOS dump!

eostic · Post by **eostic** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:19 pm

We're all dating ourselves here. Aren't too many of us around who can still "read" hex, let alone do calculations on it or immediately recognize a zone decimal from a packed decimal from an integer... (and so on)...

Sigh. A lost art.

Ernie

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:35 pm

eostic wrote:We're all dating ourselves here. Aren't too many of us around who can still "read" hex, let alone do calculations on it or immediately recognize a zone decimal from a packed decimal from an integer... (and so on)... Sigh. A lost art.

Ernie

Take heart, Ernie. My IT education sources (hereafter unnamed) tell me that the larger companies with big legacy code bases are screaming for mainframe curricula to be brought back. I'm hoping for the possibility of a part-time job at a community college or small liberal arts college to keep me busy after retirement, but if not I doubt I'll lack contracts.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:48 pm

First time I've encountered COBOL being described as a "liberal art".

jwiles · Post by **jwiles** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:55 pm

Well, it is a very wordy language, but not quite poetic

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:57 pm

Ha, Ray! My COBOL instructor way back when was the IT directory for a small book publisher. There's a "liberal" and an "art" in there for the asking.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:03 pm

Meanwhile, back on topic, the correct answer (mathematically) is that "division by zero is not defined". In a DataStage parallel Transformer stage it should cause an exception.

tanaya.deshpande@tieto.co · Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:35 pm

I am calculating a column like this

Column A = (Column B+Column C)/Column D

Now if suppose a zero value comes at Column D then the Datastage will through an exception ..or an error so how can I handle this..

????