Alternate to DECODE like function to be used in elsif statement in PLSQL procedure - oracle

Question

I am trying to use a condition elsif where something like decode needs to be used so that the condition is true and insertion is made. I am doing this in a procedure and condition is like
elsif ((v_DIVIDEND/Divisor)-1 < ABS(0.2)) then
insert into table(Divisor,b,c) values(Dividend,y,z);
It works fine when the divisor is not zero but when the divisor is zero it fails. I want to rule out zeroes in divisor using like another nested if condition within elsif or something like decode. I tried another if but syntax seemed to be wrong. Using Decode says it can only be used in SQL statement. Any suggestions, please...

Answer 1

you can also handle the "divisor equal to zero" exception and made the insert if the error occurs, see samples code in handling "divisor equal to zero" exception,
Sample 1: This sample defines a divisor_equal_to_zero exception
DECLARE
divisor_equal_to_zero EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(divisor_equal_to_zero, -1476);
v_divisor NUMBER := 0;
v_quotient NUMBER;
BEGIN
v_quotient := 1/v_divisor;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Print A: '||v_quotient);
EXCEPTION
WHEN divisor_equal_to_zero THEN
v_divisor := 1;
v_quotient := 1/v_divisor;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Print B: '||v_quotient);
--you can put the insert statement here
END;
/
Sample 2: This sample use the pre-defined ZERO_DIVIDE exception
DECLARE
v_divisor NUMBER := 0;
v_quotient NUMBER;
BEGIN
v_quotient := 1/v_divisor;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Print A: '||v_quotient);
EXCEPTION
WHEN ZERO_DIVIDE THEN
v_divisor := 1;
v_quotient := 1/v_divisor;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Print B: '||v_quotient);
--you can put the insert statement here
END;
/

Answer 2

Well, depending on what you want to get as a result when divisor = 0 (i.e. something large or something small), you can use something like this:
For small result (divide by 1E99):
case when divisor = 0 then 1E99 else divisor end
For large result (divide by 1E-99)
case when divisor = 0 then 1E-99 else divisor end
As of you being unable to use DECODE: that's correct, it can be used ONLY within the SELECT statement. It means that you should rewrite your code and put everything into SELECT (which is probably a bad idea). So - try CASE.

Answer 3

Maybe you could add a condition like this to check if Divisor is zero.
elsif ( Divisor !=0 ) and ((v_DIVIDEND/Divisor)-1 < ABS(0.2))
THEN
insert into table(Divisor,b,c) values(Dividend,y,z)
elsif Divisor = 0
THEN
insert into table(Divisor,b,c) values(?,?,?);

Answer 4

You can try nullif:
declare
divisor constant integer := 0;
result number;
begin
result := 100 / nullif(divisor,0);
end;
Here divisor is replaced with null if it has the value 0, giving the result as null.