[Tutor] The remainder %
Lloyd Kvam
pythontutor@venix.com
Tue Jun 3 13:19:01 2003
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>>> -1 % 3
2
Bob Gailer wrote:
> At 02:09 PM 6/3/2003 +0200, Guillaume wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> I'm not very good in maths and I don't understand why
>> 14 % 3 = 2
>> Could someone explain me this mystery?
>> Thanks in advance :)
>
>
> What's really frustrating here is that the language reference says "%
> (modulo) operator yields the remainder..."
>
> In math modulo is NOT the same as remainder. At least the explanation
> says "remainder". Modulo and remainder have the same values when the
> left argument is >= 0, and different values for < 0. Example:
> n n modulo 3 n % 3
> 3 0 0
> 2 2 2
> 1 1 1
> 0 0 0
> -1 2 1
> -2 1 2
> -3 0 0
>
> The only programming language I know that "got is right" is APL. There
> the function is named modulo and it DOES modulo. Most other languages
> call it modulo and it does remainder.
>
> Bob Gailer
> bgailer@alum.rpi.edu
> 303 442 2625
>
--
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp.
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