Floats

Floats

Floats are used in Python to represent numbers that aren't integers.
Some examples of numbers that are represented as floats are 0.5 and -7.8237591.
They can be created directly by entering a number with a decimal point, or by using operations such as division on integers. Extra zeros at the number's end are ignored. 

>>> 3/4
0.75
>>> 9.8765000
9.8765


Computers can't store floats perfectly accurately, in the same way that we can't write down the complete decimal expansion of 1/3 (0.3333333333333333...). Keep this in mind, because it often leads to infuriating bugs! 


As you saw previously, dividing any two integers produces a float.
A float is also produced by running an operation on two floats, or on a float and an integer.

>>> 8 / 2
4.0
>>> 6 * 7.0
42.0
>>> 4 + 1.65
5.65

A float can be added to an integer, because Python silently converts the integer to a float. However, this implicit conversion is the exception rather the rule in Python - usually you have to convert values manually if you want to operate on them.