If you tried to equally divide an unequal amount of candies, you would be left with a few remaining candies. In division, those that remain are called remainders.
What do we do with this remainder? Do we display the number as a floating point or do we round it down to the closest whole number?
Python has an answer with its division operators.
Types of division operators in Python
In Python, there are two types of division operators:
/: Divides the number on its left by the number on its right and returns a floating point value.//: Divides the number on its left by the number on its right, rounds down the answer, and returns a whole number.
The illustration below shows how this works.
Examples
Now that we know how the operators work and what kind of division each operator performs; let’s look at an example of division in Python.
# Dividing an integer by an integer print["The answer for 5/2: "] print[5/2] print["The answer for 5//2: "] print[5//2] print["\n"] # Dividing an integer by a float print["The answer for 5/2.75: "] print[5/2.75] print["The answer for 5//2.75: "] print[5//2.75] print["\n"] #Dividing a float by an integer print["The answer for 5.5/2: "] print[5.5/2] print["The answer for 5.5//2: "] print[5.5//2] print["\n"] #Dividing a float by an float print["The answer for 5.5/2.5: "] print[5.5/2.5] print["The answer for 5.5//2.5: "] print[5.5//2.5]
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Division Operators allow you to divide two numbers and return a quotient, i.e., the first number or number at the left is divided by the second number or number at the right and returns the quotient.
There are two types of division operators:
[i] Float division:
The quotient returns by this operator is always a float number, no matter if two numbers are integer. For example:
>>>5/5 1.0 >>>10/2 5.0 >>>-10/2 -5.0 >>>20.0/2 10.0
[ii] Integer division[ Floor division]:
The quotient returned by this operator is dependent on the argument being passed. If any of the numbers is float, it returns output in float. It is also known as Floor division because, if any number is negative, then the output will be floored. For example:
>>>5//5 1 >>>3//2 1 >>>10//3 3
Consider the below statements in Python.
Python3
print [5//2]
print
[-5//2]
Output:
2 -3
The first output is fine, but the second one may be surprised if we are coming Java/C++ world. In Python, the “//” operator works as a floor division for integer and float arguments. However, the division operator ‘/’ returns always a float value.
Note: The “//” operator is used to return the closest integer value which is less than or equal to a specified expression or value. So from the above code, 5//2 returns 2. You know that 5/2 is 2.5, and the closest integer which is less than or equal is 2[5//2].[ it is inverse to the normal maths, in normal maths the value is 3].
Example
Python3
print [5.0/2]
print [-5.0/2]
The real floor division operator is “//”. It returns the floor value for both integer and floating-point arguments.
Python3
print [5//2]
print [-5//2]
print [5.0//2]
print [-5.0//2]
See this for example.