On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 08:48:25AM +0800, Marino David wrote: > Hi All: > > I am a newbie at the Python. > > I type "26/12" in Python Console and get result of "2". > > It is obvious that the corresponding result should be 2.3333...... I don't > know why the Console only returns the integer part of true result. Anyone > can help me out?
Try this instead: 26.0/12 and it will print a fractional number instead of an int: py> 26.0/12 2.1666666666666665 What's going on? Back in the early mists of time, when Python first came out, Python's creator Guido van Rossum decided that the / division operator should behave like in the C programming language. In C, division of two integers performs *integer division*, and drops the remainder, while division of one or more floating point number keeps the remainder as a fraction: 1/2 => 0 1/2.0 => 0.5 That was one of those decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out to be a mistake. But for backwards compatibility, Python had to keep it until recently. In Python version 3, / now does calculator division, like you expect. But in Python 2, you have to either convert one or both numbers to a float, or you can put this at the top of your program: from __future__ import division Note that there are TWO underscores at the beginning and end of "future". If you want integer division, where the remainder is ignored, you can use the // operator: py> 26.0//12 2.0 -- Steven _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
