Division Operators in Python

The Python division operator is used to divide two integer values and return a quotient. To perform a division operation, we use the / symbol. For example, 16 divided by 4 is written as 16 / 4, which returns 4 as the quotient. Here, 16 is known as divident and 4 is known as divisor.

The division operator is one of the arithmetic operator. When we divide an integer by zero, it will raise a ZeroDivisionError exception in Python. For example, if we try to divide 55 by 0 using 55 / 0, it will raise a ZeroDivisionError exception.

Types of Division

In Python, there are two types of divisions ?

• Floor Division
• Float Division

Python Floor Division

Floor division is performed using the // symbol, which returns the largest integer less than or equal to the result. If either number is a float, the result will be a float. If a negative number is involved, the result will be rounded down to the nearest integer (towards negative infinity).

Following is a syntax of the Python floor division ?

var_1 // var_2

where, var_1 and var_2 are numeric values.

Example

Following is an example of the Python Floor division ?

num_1 = 19
num_2 = 2
num_3 = 12.5
num_4 = 2
floor_div1 = num_1 // num_2
floor_div2 = -num_1 // num_2
floor_div3 = num_3 // num_4
print("Floor Division :",floor_div1)
print("Floor division when one number is negative :",floor_div2)
print("Floor division when one number is float :",floor_div3)

Following is the output of the above code ?

Floor Division : 9
Floor division when one number is negative : -10
Floor division when one number is float : 6.0

Float Division

The float division is a normal division operation, which is performed using / symbol and returns a float number irrespective data type of the numbers.

Following is a syntax of the Python float division ?

var_1/var_2

Where var_1 and var_2 are two numeric values.

Example

Following is an example of the Python float division ?

var_1 = 44
var_2 = 3
var_3 = -85
var_4 = 7
float_div1= var_1 / var_2
float_div2 = var_3 / var_4
print("Float division :",float_div1)
print("Float division with one value is negative number :",float_div2)

Following is the output of the above code ?

Float division : 14.666666666666666
Float division with one value is negative number : -12.142857142857142