Division by zero: int vs. float

Question

Dividing an int by zero, will throw an exception, but a float won\'t - at least in Java. Why does a float have additional NaN info, while an int type doesn\'t?

Answer 1

Basically, it's a purely arbitrary decision.

The traditional int tries to use all the bits for representing possible numbers, whereas IEEE 754 standard reserves a special value for NaN.

The standard could be changed for ints to include special values, at a cost of less efficient operations. The developers usually expect int operations to be very efficient, whereas the operations with floating point numbers are (purely psychologically) more allowed to be slower.