Search⌘ K
AI Features
Home
Courses
C Brain Teasers: Exercise Your Mind

Discussion: A Fraction of an Int

Explore how integer division works in C and why using the correct format specifier is important for accurate output. Understand how typecasting converts integers to floating-point numbers to produce decimal results. Learn practical coding techniques to handle typecasting effectively, ensuring your C programs produce precise calculations and avoid common compiler warnings.

We'll cover the following...

Run the code

Now, it's time to execute the code and observe the output.

C
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    int a, b;
    a = 5; b = 4;
    printf("%d/%d = %f\n", a, b, a/b);
    return(0);
}

Understanding the output

The compiler throws a warning because the %f placeholder expects a float value, but the integer result of the division is interpreted incorrectly. The actual division, 5/4, yields 1. However, when printed with the %f format specifier, it reads the memory of the integer result as a float, leading to 0.000000. By changing the format string to %d, the ...