Why is there no division remainder operation for floats/doubles in C and C++?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why does modulus division (%) only work with integers?

This code doesn't work in C and C++ but works in C# and Java:

float x = 3.4f % 1.1f;
double x = 3.4 % 1.1;

Also, division remainder is defined for reals in Python.

What is the reason this operation is not defined for floats and doubles in C and C++?

score 20 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '12 at 20:27

20

The C committee explained its position of why there is no remainder operator for floating types in the Rationale document:

(6.5.5 Multiplicative operators) The C89 Committee rejected extending the % operator to work on floating types as such usage would duplicate the facility provided by fmod (see §7.12.10.1).

answered Jul 14 '12 at 20:27

ouah

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Any insight as to why they made that decision? – Stephen Collings Oct 11 '12 at 18:33
1

@Remiel because *as such usage would duplicate the facility provided by fmod* – ouah Oct 12 '12 at 10:28
1

Yes, I read the answer. Let me rephrase my question: as a matter of language design, why would it be undesirable to integrate the facility of fmod into the core language? – Stephen Collings Oct 12 '12 at 12:44

Why is there no division remainder operation for floats/doubles in C and C++?

1 Answers1