Divide By Zero Error even though I am checking first

September 8th, 2022, 06:30 PM

Hi all,

I'm still new to easylanguage, but I can't figure this out.

I keep getting a divide by zero error even though the very first thing I am doing is to test if any of the denominators is 0.

Code

if (absvalue(open[1] - close[1]) > 0) Then
	if (curDirection = -1) Then
		olp = ((high - close[1]) / (open[1] - close[1]));
		if (curDirection = 1) Then
			if (low > close[1]) Then
				olp = (((low - close[1])*-1) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
				olp = (absvalue(low - close[1]) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
				olp = 0;

Any help is much appreciated!

September 8th, 2022, 09:46 PM

gurji

Hi all,

I'm still new to easylanguage, but I can't figure this out.

I keep getting a divide by zero error even though the very first thing I am doing is to test if any of the denominators is 0.

Code

if (absvalue(open[1] - close[1]) > 0) Then
	if (curDirection = -1) Then
		olp = ((high - close[1]) / (open[1] - close[1]));
		if (curDirection = 1) Then
			if (low > close[1]) Then
				olp = (((low - close[1])*-1) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
				olp = (absvalue(low - close[1]) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
				olp = 0;

Any help is much appreciated!

Hi @gurji,

I dont have access to easylanguage, however I put your formulas into Excel. The only scenario I came up where div by zero error came up is when Close1 is zero. Perhaps try putting a check around the Open1 and Close1 to make sure they are both > than zero or absvalue(open[1] - close[1]) > 0 does not equal open[1] .

example:
if (absvalue(open[1] - close[1]) > 0 and absvalue(open[1] - close[1]) <> open[1])

Robert

September 8th, 2022, 09:53 PM

Hi, thanks for the reply, but thats not it.

I just confirmed a that when a number divided by a number with a decimal WHEN USING a VARIABLE, causes the error.

So for example, right now, I have this:

Code

qqq = 0.53234;
yyy = absvalue(open[1] - close[1]);  // (yyy equals 0.08 exactly.  No rounding)
zzz = 4545/0.08;

This works.
But this fails:


qqq = 0.53234;
yyy = absvalue(open[1] - close[1]);  
zzz = 4545/yyy;


Plot1 (zzz);

September 8th, 2022, 10:39 PM

Ok, I solved the issue. Hopefully this might help someone else.
Basically, I wrote the IF statements to test for zero in a different way using <> 0 instead of > 0, and also I put the test around each direction, instead of the whole thing.
Not sure why all that matters, but it worked.

Code

if ((curDirection = -1) and ((open[1] - close[1]) <> 0)) Then
	olp = ((high - close[1]) / (open[1] - close[1]));
	if ((curDirection = 1) and ((close[1] - open[1]) <> 0)) Then
		if (low > close[1]) Then
			olp = (((low - close[1])*-1) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
			olp = (absvalue(low - close[1]) / (close[1] - open[1])) Else
			olp = 0;

September 18th, 2022, 09:36 PM

Tradestation wants you to code this, this way:

nameofyourchoosing = open[1] -close[1]
if ((curDirection = -1) and ((open[1] - close[1]) <> 0)) Then
olp = iff(nameofyourchoosing <> 0, ((high - close[1]) / (nameofyourchoosing)), olp[1]);
if ((curDirection = 1) and ((nameofyourchoosing) <> 0)) Then
if (low > close[1]) Then
olp = iff(nameofyourchoosing <> 0, (((low - close[1])*-1) / (nameofourchoosing))olp[1]), Else
olp = iff(nameofyourchoosing <> 0,(absvalue(low - close[1]) / (nameofyourchoosing)), olp[1]), Else
olp = 0;

...in order to avoid the divide by zero error.

Divide By Zero Error even though I am checking first

Discussion in EasyLanguage Programming

Divide By Zero Error even though I am checking first