division - What is the reason for having '//' in Python?

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Answer 1

In Python 3, they made the / operator do a floating-point division, and added the // operator to do integer division (i.e., quotient without remainder); whereas in Python 2, the / operator was simply integer division, unless one of the operands was already a floating point number.

In Python 2.X:

>>> 10/3
3
>>> # To get a floating point number from integer division:
>>> 10.0/3
3.3333333333333335
>>> float(10)/3
3.3333333333333335

In Python 3:

>>> 10/3
3.3333333333333335
>>> 10//3
3

For further reference, see PEP238.