/ vs. // operator in Python
Python is a high-level programming language that can be used to build websites, software, machine-learning models, etc. Different operators are provided in Python that tell the interpreter to perform a specific task, such as division, multiplication, etc.
In this Answer, we will compare the regular division operator / and the floor division operator // to see how they differ from one another.
Regular division operator ( / )
The / operator refers to the regular division operator. It performs division on two variables and returns the output as a float.
The / operator will always return a float value whether we give it two integers or float variables as operator arguments.
Below, we can see a Python code example that uses the / operator.
# division between two integersresult = 10 / 3print("10 / 3 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")# division between a float and a integerresult = 2.5 / 2print("2.5 / 2 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")#division between two floatsresult = 5.5 / 2.3print("5.5 / 2.3 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")
Floor division operator ( // )
The // operator refers to the floor division operator. It takes two variables as input, either integers or floats. It then returns the result of their division rounded to the nearest whole number towards negative infinity. For example, 0.67 would be rounded to 0 instead of 1.
The floor division operator always returns an integer value if both inputs are integers and a float value if either input is a float.
Below are Python code examples that perform floor division using the // operator.
# division between two integersresult = 10 // 3print("10 // 3 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")# division between a float and a integerresult = 2.5 // 2print("2.5 // 2 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")#division between two floatsresult = 5.5 // 2.3print("5.5 // 2.3 = " + str(result), end = "\n\n")
Conclusion
The regular division operator is used when we want to perform normal division on numbers where we want the fractional part of the answer. We use the floor division operator when we want to get the result of the division operation rounded down to the nearest number towards negative infinity.
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