Scala: Divide by zero

Question

I have something like this in my app: ``` def something(x: Int, y: Int) Z { (x / y) } ``` Now, if the someval is not a number (meaning that either x or y is equal to 0), then I'd like Z to just become 0 instead of displaying an error (`[ArithmeticException: Division by zero]`) I know I can do: ``` Try(someVale) orElse Try(0) ``` However, that'll give me `Success(0)` whereas I'd just like for it to give me a `0` in that case. Maybe there's something like `if ArithmeticException then 0` in Scala or something to remove the "Success" and parenthesis. Can someone shed some light please?

Accepted Answer

I'm assuming "divide by zero" is just an example and you can't avoid throwing an exception. When you can avoid throwing an exception you should do it like in this answer.

You could use `getOrElse` method on `Try` instead of `orElse`:

```
def something(x: Int, y: Int) = Try(x/y).getOrElse(0)
```

In case you want to recover only on `ArithmeticException` you could use `recover` method and `get`:

```
def something(x: Int, y: Int) =
  Try(x/y).recover{ case _: ArithmeticException => 0 }.get
```

With method `get` you'll get an exception if `Try` is `Failure`, but `recover` allows you to convert `Failure` to `Success`.

You could also convert your `Try` to `Option` to return "no result" without showing exception:

```
def something(x: Int, y: Int): Option[Int] = Try(x/y).toOption
```

Scala: Divide by zero

Solution

Problem