Where can I convert x to float in this Python function?

Question

How can I make this function return and print a float:

x = input ("Enter 5 numbers:")

def average(x):
       return sum(x) / len(x)

print average(x)

take a look here: http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=python+division+float — kratenko, Jul 01 '14 at 14:49
@LasseV.Karlsen: Right, but he's on Python 2 apparently and should be using `raw_input()`. — Tim Pietzcker, Jul 01 '14 at 14:50
@Bakuriu: That "duplicate" is a long way away from helping him in this situation. — Tim Pietzcker, Jul 01 '14 at 14:51
@TimPietzcker I don't see your point. Note that using `input` the `x` in his code is a list/tuple of numbers so the **only** problem he has (and that ha also has asked explicitly) is how to do floating point arithmetic when the input are integers. And that's *exactly* what the duplicate question is about. — Bakuriu, Jul 01 '14 at 14:53
So since he's on Python 2, then I was wrong above about what he asked about. The only thing left then is the float conversion, so the duplicate should be fine then. — Lasse V. Karlsen, Jul 01 '14 at 14:53
@Bakuriu thanks, the duplicate question solves my problem perfectly! I appreciate it very much! — Joe T. Boka, Jul 01 '14 at 15:08

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 01 '14 at 14:47

In python 2.x, int object divided by int yields int.

You should convert one (or both) of the operand to float to get float result:

>>> 10 / 2
5
>>> float(10) / 2
5.0

Or turn on true division using __future__ module:

>>> from __future__ import division
>>> 10 / 2
5.0

1 Answers1