PYTHON SYNTAX _10/14

Two Types of Division

In Python, when we divide two integers, we get an integer as a result. When the quotient is a whole number, this works fine:

quotient = 6/2
# the value of quotient is now 3, which makes sense

However, if the numbers do not divide evenly, the result of the division is truncated into an integer. In other words, the quotient is rounded down to a whole number. This can be surprising when you expect to receive a decimal and you receive a rounded-down integer:

quotient = 7/2
# the value of quotient is 3, even though the result of the division here is 3.5

To yield a float as the result instead, programmers often change either the numerator or the denominator (or both) to be a float:

quotient1 = 7./2
# the value of quotient1 is 3.5
quotient2 = 7/2.
# the value of quotient2 is 3.5
quotient3 = 7./2.
# the value of quotient3 is 3.5

An alternative way is to use the float() method:

quotient1 = float(7)/2 
# the value of quotient1 is 3.5



Exercise

1.You have come home from the grocery store with 100 cucumbers to split amongst yourself and your 5 roommates (6 people total).Create a variable cucumbers that holds 100and num_people that holds 6.

2.Create a variable called whole_cucumbers_per_person that is the integer result of dividing cucumbers by num_people.Print whole_cucumbers_per_person to the console.

3.You realize that the numbers don't divide evenly and you don't want to throw out the remaining cucumbers. Create a variable called float_cucumbers_per_person that holds the float result of dividing cucumbersby num_people.

Print float_cucumbers_per_person to the console.



Hint!

You can do float division by casting either the numerator or denominator as a float:

quotient_with_decimals = float(5)/2
#yields 2.5                                                                                                 

SOL.