What is Floor Division in Golang?

In Golang, floor division isn't a built-in operator like it is in some other languages such as Python. However, you can achieve the effect of floor division using the standard division operator / when working with integers. Golang performs integer division, which naturally truncates the decimal part of the result.

Here's a breakdown:

Integer Division: When you divide two integers (e.g., 10 / 3) in Golang, the result is also an integer. The division discards the remainder, effectively performing floor division.

Example:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  a := 10
  b := 3
  result := a / b
  fmt.Println(result) // Output: 3
}


In this example, 10 / 3 results in 3, not 3.333.... Golang discards the fractional part.

Why it's Floor Division: Floor division means to divide and then round the result down to the nearest integer. In the case of positive integers, standard integer division achieves this perfectly. When it comes to negative numbers, it's still floor division because the division operation discards the decimal part, effectively returning the greatest integer less than or equal to the quotient.

Example with Negative Numbers:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  a := -10
  b := 3
  result := a / b
  fmt.Println(result) // Output: -3
}


In this case, -10 / 3 results in -3, which is the floor of -3.333....

Important Note: If you have floating-point numbers, standard division will produce a floating-point result. To get the floor of a floating-point result you'd need to explicitly use the math.Floor() function after the division.

In Summary, when you are doing integer arithmetic in Golang, the standard / operator performs floor division automatically. This makes it easy to work with scenarios that require discarding any fractional part of a result.

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