The latest articles on DEV Community by Lilian Mwaura (@lilianmwaura). https://dev.to/lilianmwaura https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F899992%2Ff16be256-8f72-4b4b-8659-9607f5faee4a.jpeg https://dev.to/lilianmwaura en Lilian Mwaura Tue, 02 Aug 2022 09:26:04 +0000 https://dev.to/lilianmwaura/division-floor-division-and-modulus-python-arithmetic-operators-every-beginner-should-know-13i8 https://dev.to/lilianmwaura/division-floor-division-and-modulus-python-arithmetic-operators-every-beginner-should-know-13i8 <h2> <strong>What is an Operator?</strong> </h2> <p>Operators are used to perform operations on variables and values.<br> In python, Operators are classified into different categories based on the kind of operations they perform:<br> They include:</p> <ul> <li>Arithmetic Operators</li> <li>Assignment Operators</li> <li>Comparison Operators</li> <li>Logical Operators</li> <li>Identity operators</li> <li>Membership operators</li> <li>Bitwise operators</li> </ul> <p><strong>Arithmetic Operators</strong> <br> Arithmetic operators are used with numeric values to perform common mathematical operations:</p> <p><strong>Operator</strong> <strong>Name</strong> <strong>Example</strong></p> <ul> <li> + Addition x + y </li> <li> - Subtraction x - y </li> <li> * Multiplication x * y </li> <li> / Division x / y </li> <li> % Modulus x % y </li> <li>** Exponentiation x ** y </li> <li>// Floor division x // y</li> </ul> <p><strong>Difference between Division, Modulus and Floor Division</strong><br> All these operators are quite interesting because they all perform division, but print different results.<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>#Division (/) - basically gives out the result of a division. a = 5 b = 2 print(5/2) # result will be 2.5 #Floor Division (//) - Provides the lower-bound of an integral division a = 5 b = 2 print(5//2) # result will be 2, the decimal is cut off returning only the whole number #Modulus(%) - Computes the reminder of a division,which is the 'leftover' of an integral division. a= 5 b=2 print(5%2) #result will be 1, which is the 'leftover' integer after the division </code></pre> </div> <p>First time I learnt all these operations and the different results they print out, I did not quite understand the essence of knowing all these. </p> <p>But understanding operators comes in handy when solving problems in Python. </p> <p>For example, modulus is important in finding out even and odd numbers in python. <br> See the example below : </p> <h3> How to determine even and odd numbers using modulus(%) </h3> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>n % 2 == 1 # when n is divided by 2 and the output has a reminder of 1 which means that the number is odd. n % 2 == 0 # when n is divided by 2 and the is 0, meaning the number is divisible by 2 then the result is an even number. </code></pre> </div> <p>Hope you learnt something.</p> <p>Happy Coding!</p> python operators beginners modulus