Divide by zero gives unicode #8734 character in Scala

Question

I'm using a velocity template in my Scala app which logs to a file. If I'm dividing by zero why do I get a unicode representation (∞) in my templated log file and Infinity printed on Eclipse console when debugging the below code?

val params = MMap.empty[String, Any]
params.put("percent", ((23.6 * 100.0) / 0.0))
debug(params.get("percent")).toDouble + "")

I need to pinpoint where the conversion from `Infinity` to `∞` happens? — 212, Sep 18 '13 at 11:54
According to GitHub, [nope](https://github.com/scala/scala/search?q=%E2%88%9E&ref=cmdform). @Vaibhav , what frameworks/logging are you using? — mikołak, Sep 18 '13 at 13:19
slf4j which uses a velocity template format log output. What I find confusing is why a simple string without special characters : `Infinity` gets converted to unicode? — 212, Sep 18 '13 at 15:13

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

Probably because this character is U+221E INFINITY, i.e. ∞, i.e. the infinity sign?

As to where it comes from, well, it's unlikely that it comes from Scala itself. I've taken the liberty to d/l the current master and search for 221e, 221E, ∞, 8734 and even Infinity. I've found nothing indicative of such a conversion.

There's a simple solution for finding what does the conversion (and this is general for such problems):

run your app with debugger access (for externally started JVMs you need debug mode with suspend=y preferably),
put a breakpoint on that debug statement,
step through until you find the offending code.

Divide by zero gives unicode #8734 character in Scala

1 Answers1