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Divide

Divides the first number by the second. Runtime-proven on a live Marketing Cloud Engagement CloudPage — including the undocumented zero-divisor result, which renders an infinity symbol instead of failing.

Next
Runtime verified Test scripts included

Syntax

Divide(dividend, divisor)  →  number
2 arguments — exactly

Parameters

Name Type Required Description
dividend string | number Yes Number to divide
divisor string | number Yes Number to divide by

Example

%%[
  VAR @unitPrice
  SET @unitPrice = Divide(29.97, 3)
]%%
Per unit: %%=v(@unitPrice)=%%

Renders Per unit: 9.99.

A zero divisor renders ∞ rather than failing, so guard the divisor before you use the result:

%%[
  VAR @count, @average
  SET @count = AttributeValue("ItemCount")
  IF @count > 0 THEN
    SET @average = Divide(AttributeValue("OrderTotal"), @count)
  ENDIF
]%%

Return value

number — the quotient of the two operands.

A zero divisor does not raise an error: a non-zero dividend yields the infinity symbol and a zero dividend yields NaN. Guard against a zero divisor before rendering the result. Both of those are IEEE numeric values rather than a closed set of status tokens, so there is nothing to pattern-match beyond the two literals.

Behaviour

Non-integer quotients render as decimals. Divide(10, 3) renders 3.33333333333333 — the value is not rounded to an integer.

Negatives work as expected. Divide(-10, 4) gives -2.5.

Numeric strings are accepted. Divide("100", "4") gives 25, Divide("3.5", "0.5") gives 7, and mixing forms as in Divide(9, "2") gives 4.5.

Non-numeric input aborts the page. A non-numeric string (Divide("abc", 1)) and a boolean-like string (Divide("true", 1)) each abort the CloudPage with HTTP 422, discarding all output rendered before the call.

Dividing by zero

This is the load-bearing finding for this function, and it is not mentioned by the official reference at all.

A zero divisor does not raise an error and does not abort the page. Instead:

Call Renders
Divide(100, 0) ∞
Divide(1, 0) ∞
Divide(7.5, 0) ∞
Divide(-100, 0) -∞
Divide(0, 0) NaN
Divide(100, "0") ∞

The glyph is genuinely U+221E, confirmed by dumping the codepoints of the rendered line. A zero divisor passed as a numeric string behaves identically to the numeric zero.

The practical consequence is that an unguarded division by zero does not fail loudly — the ∞ flows straight into the rendered message and ships to the recipient. Check the divisor yourself before dividing.

Both zero-divisor behaviours are catalogued as findings on Differs from official docs, alongside the contrasting behaviour of Mod, which renders NaN in every zero-divisor case.

Show test script
%%[
  VAR @b
  SET @b = RequestParameter("b")

  /* safe sweep: everything here is accepted and can share one request */
  IF @b == "safe" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(100,4)=[", Divide(100,4), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide('100','4')=[", Divide("100","4"), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide('3.5','0.5')=[", Divide("3.5","0.5"), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(9,'2')=[", Divide(9,"2"), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(10,3)=[", Divide(10,3), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(-10,4)=[", Divide(-10,4), "]"))
  ENDIF

  /* zero divisor: does NOT abort, so all cases can share one request */
  IF @b == "d0" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(100,0)=[", Divide(100,0), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(1,0)=[", Divide(1,0), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(7.5,0)=[", Divide(7.5,0), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(-100,0)=[", Divide(-100,0), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(0,0)=[", Divide(0,0), "]"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(100,'0')=[", Divide(100,"0"), "]"))
  ENDIF

  /* each risky branch aborts the page: the start marker never renders */
  IF @b == "few" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("few start"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(1)=[", Divide(1), "]"))
  ENDIF

  IF @b == "many" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("many start"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide(1,2,3)=[", Divide(1,2,3), "]"))
  ENDIF

  IF @b == "str" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("str start"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide('abc',1)=[", Divide("abc",1), "]"))
  ENDIF

  IF @b == "bool" THEN
    OutputLine(Concat("bool start"))
    OutputLine(Concat("Divide('true',1)=[", Divide("true",1), "]"))
  ENDIF
]%%

Availability

Platform Available
Marketing Cloud Engagement Yes
Marketing Cloud Next Yes, from API 67.0

See also