divide by zero divide by null

unknown

Hello

We have 100s of rules that are migrated from Infor CPM that have arithmetic divides. In CPM, dividing by zero would cause system issues and and to prevent this, 

a check would be done on the divisor before dividing by it.

e.g.

if y <> 0 then

x/y 

endif

On EPM, best practice is NOT to check when multiplying by a possible zero or #na. (according to the Infor instruction videos)
What is the best practice when it comes to division?

Is the check still required or is the engine clever enough to ignore it?

By omitting the divisor check,  will there be a performance benefit?

Thanks,

Bilal

John Robson

Bilal

In OLAP /0 does not result in an error but rather returns a 0. If you don't want this outcome than in IF statement may be necessary.

As a general comment try never to store zeros in a cube. If say you do not plan to sell a product or service this month leave the cell with it's default null 'value' and check that load processes don't send zeros. The reason is that a zero triggers a calculation and a null doesn't.