From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2002-03-01T05:18:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Correct use of % (modulus) operator?

"Dan McNulty" <dmcnulty@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:ff217e22.0202281135.aec6da8@posting.google.com...
> Coming from a C background, I expected "%" to yield a remainder.
>
> But the code:
> print "4 mod 2: ", 4.0 % 2.0, "\n"
> print "5 mod 2: ", 5.0 % 2.0, "\n"
>
> gives me:
> 4 mod 2: 0.0
> 5 mod 2: 1.0
>
> I was expecting a result of "0.5" for 5 % 2, as 5.0 / 2.0 = 2.5

In C, "5 % 2" yields 1.  2 goes into 5 only twice evenly, leaving a
remainder of 1.  The expression for your result is "(5 / 2) % 1".

    Sean