Thread: Question about mixed data types- with division

  1. #1
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    Question about mixed data types- with division

    Question about the expressions below:

    Code:
    cout << 17 / 3.0 << endl;
    cout << 12.0 / 6 << endl;
    5.66667
    2

    I realize about / and integer but why do I get an double result for the first expression and an integer result for the second...I was thinking about promotion of data types...but now I am confused..

    Insight appreciated...

  2. #2
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    the result of an arithmetic operation is always the widest of all the data types in the operation, so double / char returns a double. long long / float returns float because float has the greater precision, even though long long is actually larger in bit count.

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    What makes you suspect that you are getting an integer result? If you want the decimal point to show for "whole" numbers you must tell the system to display the decimal point for all values. See ios::showpoint().

    Jim

  4. #4
    Algorithm Dissector iMalc's Avatar
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    12 divided by 6 came out to a whole number, that's all. I doesn't print the double result as 2.0 because you didn't ask it to, so it just picked the shortest way of representing the answer as a string.
    If you do:
    Code:
    cout << 17.0 / 3 << endl;
    you'll see the same as the first line you had above.
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  5. #5
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    Thank you all got what I needed...

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