Math Exceptions

The detection of math errors, such as division by zero, overflow, and attempting to take the logarithm of a negative number, is hardware and operating system dependent. Some systems trap more errors than other systems. Beginning with version 5.1, IDL uses the IEEE floating-point standard on all supported systems. As a result, IDL always substitutes the special floating-point values NaN and Infinity when it detects a math error. (See Special Floating-Point Values for details on NaN and Infinity.)

For information on debugging math errors, see Math Errors.