How to use fetestexcept() in C++

fetestexcept() tests for the floating-point exceptions that have been raised at any given moment in a program’s execution. It is defined in the cfenv header along with the floating-point exception macros.

To use fetestexcept(), the program must enable the pragma FENV_ACCESS as shown below:

#pragma STDC FENV_ACCESS on

Prototype

int fetestexcept (int excepts);

Parameters

except: a bitmask of type int which specifies the floating-point exceptions to test for.

Return value

fetestexcept() returns bitwise OR of the floating point exceptions that are currently set and the bitmask provided as the argument.

Floating point exception macros

Macro

Description

FE_DIVBYZERO

the result of a computation with finite arguments is infinite (division by zero occurs)

FE_INEXACT

the result of a computation can not be represented with exact accuracy

FE_INVALLID

the function is undefined for at least one of the given arguments

FE_OVERFLOW

the resulting value is too large to be represented by a floating point value

FE_UNDERFLOW

the resulting value is too small to be represented by a floating point value

FE_ALL_EXCEPT

at least one of the above exceptions are raised

Example

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <cfenv>
#pragma STDC FENV_ACCESS on
int main(){
float x = 1.0 / 0.0;
float y = std::sqrt(-1);
std::cout << "The floating point exceptions currently raised are: " << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_DIVBYZERO)) std::cout << "FE_DIVBYZERO raised" << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_INEXACT)) std::cout << "FE_INEXACT raised" << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_INVALID)) std::cout << "FE_INVALID raised" << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_OVERFLOW)) std::cout << "FE_OVERFLOW raised" << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_UNDERFLOW)) std::cout << "FE_UNDERFLOW raised" << std::endl;
if (std::fetestexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT)) std::cout << "FE_ALL_EXCEPT raised" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "**No exceptions raised**" << std::endl;
return 0;
}

In the code above, we trigger the FE_DIVBYZERO and the FE_INVALID exceptions to be set.

FE_DIVBYZERO is raised when we try to compute the result of 1.0/0.01.0/0.0, which is undefined. As a result, it raises the FE_DIVBYZERO exception.

FE_INVALID is raised when we try to compute the square root of 1-1. Since the square root is only defined for positive values, it raises the FE_INVALID exception.

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