[issue10346] strange arithmetic behaviour

[Mark Dickinson]

Mark Dickinson <dickinsm at gmail.com> added the comment:

It's not a bug:  you're seeing Python's rules for integer division, which do indeed differ from those of (some) other languages when either the divisor or the dividend is negative.  For integers x and y, in Python 2.x, x / y gives the floor of the exact quotient.

>>> -32 / 5
-7
>>> 32 / -5
-7

In Python 3.x, the '/' operator does 'true division', giving you (a floating-point approximation to) the true result:

>>> -32 / 5
-6.4
>>> 32 / -5
-6.4

You can also get this behaviour in Python 2.x if you start your script with 'from __future__ import division'.

See the documentation at:

http://docs.python.org/reference/expressions.html#binary-arithmetic-operations

for more.

----------
nosy: +mark.dickinson
resolution:  -> invalid
status: open -> closed

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