What are division operators in Python?
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 integerprint("The answer for 5/2: ")print(5/2)print("The answer for 5//2: ")print(5//2)print("\n")# Dividing an integer by a floatprint("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 integerprint("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 floatprint("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)
