Negative power of zero

Description

It is not possible to calculate a negative power of 0: a negative power is, in fact, a division raised to a power, and division by zero is undefined.

It was a silent error until PHP 8.4, and it is now a visible one.

This is also the case with PHP native ** and pow().

Example

<?php

echo bcpow(0, -1);

?>

Solutions

  • Check for the first argument not to be 0, or similar.

  • Catch the exception.