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.
//
is unconditionally "truncating division", e.g:
>>> 4.0//1.5
2.0
As you see, even though both operands are float
s, //
still truncates -- so you always know securely what it's gonna do.
Single /
may or may not truncate depending on Python release, future imports, and even flags on which Python's run, e.g....:
$ python2.6 -Qold -c 'print 2/3'
0
$ python2.6 -Qnew -c 'print 2/3'
0.666666666667
As you see, single /
may truncate, or it may return a float, based on completely non-local issues, up to and including the value of the -Q
flag...;-).
So, if and when you know you want truncation, always use //
, which guarantees it. If and when you know you don't want truncation, slap a float()
around other operand and use /
. Any other combination, and you're at the mercy of version, imports, and flags!-)
To complement these other answers, the //
operator also offers significant (3x) performance benefits over /
, presuming you want integer division.
$ python -m timeit '20.5 // 2'
100000000 loops, best of 3: 0.0149 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit '20.5 / 2'
10000000 loops, best of 3: 0.0484 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit '20 / 2'
10000000 loops, best of 3: 0.043 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit '20 // 2'
100000000 loops, best of 3: 0.0144 usec per loop