How to catch ZeroDivisionError Exception in Python?

ZeroDivisionError Exception in Python

The ZeroDivisionError is raised in Python when a number is divided by zero. Since dividing by zero is mathematically undefined, Python throws this error.

In this article, you will learn how to catch and handle ZeroDivisionError using the try-except block. Usually, when an exception occurs, the program will be terminated abruptly, leaving the statements after the exception unexecuted.

By handling this exception, the execution of the program continues even after the ZeroDivisionError exception (an invalid division attempt). The ZeroDivisionError generally occurs in the following cases -

• Dividing any number by zero using / or // operators
• Modulo operation with zero as the divisor using %

Using try-except to Catch ZeroDivisionError

We can catch ZeroDivisionError by placing the code that is prone to this exception in the try-except block. In the except block, we can print an appropriate message providing the required information about the exception.

Example

In this example, we try to divide a number by zero, and catch the exception using ZeroDivisionError -

try:
   result = 10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError:
   print("Cannot divide by zero.")

Following is the output obtained -

Cannot divide by zero.

Catching ZeroDivisionError Using Exception Object

You can also use the exception object to display the exact error message generated by Python.

Example

In this example, we catch the error and print its message using the exception object -

try:
   value = 8 // 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
   print("Error caught:", e)

We get the output as shown below -

Error caught: integer division or modulo by zero

Using ZeroDivisionError in User Input

Typically, while performing arithmetic operations like division, we accept values from the user.

In this example, we are accepting the denominator value for the user and placing the statements performing the division operation within the try-except block -

try:
   num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
   result = 100 / num
   print("Result is:", result)
except ZeroDivisionError:
   print("Cannot divide by zero.")

The error obtained is as shown below -

Enter a number: 0
Cannot divide by zero.

Handling Multiple Exceptions

You can catch multiple exceptions (such as ValueError and ZeroDivisionError) in one program by using multiple except blocks.

Example

In the following example, we handle both invalid input and division by zero separately -

try:
   num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
   result = 50 / num
   print("Result:", result)
except ValueError:
   print("Invalid input. Please enter a number.")
except ZeroDivisionError:
   print("Cannot divide by zero.")

The result produced is as follows -

Enter a number: 0
Cannot divide by zero.