Negative integer division surprising result
Solution 1
For the actual values, i.e. 8.0/(-7.0)
, the result is roughly -1.143
.
Your result using integer division is being rounded down toward the more negative value of -2
. (This is also known as "Floor division")
This is why you will get the somewhat perplexing answers of:
>>> 8/(-7)
-2
>>> 8/7
1
Note: This is "fixed" in Python 3, where the result of 8/(-7)
would be -1.143
. So if you have no reason to be using Python 2, you should upgrade. ;)
In Python 3, if you still want integer division, you can use the //
operator. This will give you the same answer as 8/(-7)
would in Python 2.
Here's a Python Enhancement Proposal on the subject: PEP 238 -- Changing the Division Operator
Solution 2
Python always does the "floor division" for both negative numbers division and positive numbers division.
That is
1/10 = 0
1/-10 = -1
But sometime we need 1/-10 to be 0
I figure out it can be done by using the float division first then cast result to int, e.g.
int(float(1)/-10) = 0
That works fine for me, no need to import the future division or upgrade to Python 3
Hope it can help you~
Solution 3
To have Python automatically convert integer division to float, you can use:
from __future__ import division
Now:
8/-7=-1.1428571428571428
This feature is not in the standard Python 2 not to break existing code that relied on integer division.
However, this is the default behavior for Python 3.
Solution 4
When both values are integers when dividing Python uses Floor division.
Vivek S
School:CEOA matriculation Higher Secondary School,Madurai. College:PSG College of Technology,Coimbatore. Company:Global Analytics,Chennai. Interested in Linux,Apache,Mysql,Python,Django,Jquery,Javascript,Facebook-apps,Chrome-extensions
Updated on July 08, 2022Comments
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Vivek S almost 2 years
In my application I encountered the following and was surprised by the results:
8/-7=-2
(both integers).What does this mean?