Arithmetic Operators

Syntax

+  -  *  /  //  %  **

Examples

print(10 + 3)   # 13
print(10 - 3)   # 7
print(10 * 3)   # 30
print(10 / 3)   # 3.3333333333333335  (always returns a float)

print(10 // 3)  # 3   (floor division - discards the remainder)
print(10 % 3)   # 1   (modulus - just the remainder)

# Common use: checking even/odd
number = 7
if number % 2 == 0:
    print("Even")
else:
    print("Odd")

print(2 ** 10)   # 1024
print(9 ** 0.5)  # 3.0  (square root via a fractional exponent)
print(5 ** 2)    # 25

Best practices

• Use // when you specifically need an integer result from division, and / when you want the precise float result
• Remember that / always returns a float in Python 3, even when dividing two integers evenly (10 / 2 is 5.0, not 5)
• Use ** rather than importing math.pow() for simple integer or float exponentiation
• Watch for floating-point precision quirks (0.1 + 0.2 is not exactly 0.3) when comparing float results directly

At a glance

Purpose

Scripting and general-purpose applications

File extension

.py

Runs in

Python interpreter

Usually used with

Python standard library and packages

Specifications & further reading

• Python language reference

Related Python documentation