Python language basics 6: integer division vs. float division

Introduction

In the previous post we looked at support for floating point numbers in Python.

In this post we’ll take a look at integer vs. floating point division.

“/” vs. “//”

Dividing two numbers using the “/” operator in Python will automatically assign the result to a floating point number:

x = 10
y = 2
z = x / y
print(z)

‘z’ will be 5.0. If you want to force the result to be an integer you can use the “//” integer division operator:

x = 10
y = 2
z = x // y
print(z)

‘z’ will be 5 this time. Similarly the following example yields 3:

x = 10
y = 3
z = x // y
print(z)

…whereas the following gives 3.333:

x = 10
y = 3
z = x / y
print(z)

In the next post we’ll look into how the boolean type is represented in Python.

Read all Python-related posts on this blog here.