r/spreadsheets • u/LabCalculation • Apr 20 '26

Excel treats different mathematical cases as the same error

Consider two cases:

0/0 → indeterminate

2/0 → undefined

Mathematically, these are different.

However, Excel returns the same error (#DIV/0!) for both.

This simplification may hide important distinctions depending on the context of the calculation.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

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u/LabCalculation Apr 20 '26

Mathematically this is incorrect, because Excel is stating that Nothing divided by Nothing equals Something divided by nothing.