{"id":2554,"date":"2017-06-17T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-17T07:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/?p=2554"},"modified":"2017-06-10T09:16:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T16:16:45","slug":"the-gazinta-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/?p=2554","title":{"rendered":"The “Gazinta” Function"},"content":{"rendered":"

Division is the last of the four basic arithmetic operations taught. Addition is easiest, followed by subtraction. Multiplication is merely aggressive addition. Division is a weird un-multiplication combined with subtraction thing, which is probably why educators save the concept for last.
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\nIn programming, as in all computerdom, division is handled by the \/<\/code> operator. It’s one of the common symbols used to express division, as illustrated in Figure 1.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Figure 1. Way to express division.<\/p><\/div>\n

The symbol on the far right in Figure 1 isn’t used in higher mathematics, or even in some countries. It’s the long division construction, popular in American grammar schools, and it’s what I call the gazinta<\/em>. Also, it reads backwards from the other functions.<\/p>\n

For example, the first three expressions in Figure 1 say the same thing: 5 divided by 4. The fourth says, “4 goes into 5,” which is still “5 divided by 4,” but the way I remember it is to say “goes into” or “gazinta.”<\/p>\n

The first three forms shown in Figure 1 express ratios, which is really what division is all about. The fourth form — the gazinta — produces a result and a remainder. So the ratio of 5\/4 is 1.25, but the gazinta is 1 with 1 remainder.<\/p>\n

The C language features a gazinta function, disappointingly called div()<\/em> and not gazinta()<\/em>. The function is defined in the stdlib.h<\/code> header.<\/p>\n

The div()<\/em> function requires two arguments, a numerator and a denominator. The numerator is the number on top the fraction (or ratio). The denominator is on the bottom. So in 5\/4, the value 5 is the numerator and 4 is the denominator. For a gazinta, the denominator appears first, then the numerator is inside the ⟌ thing.<\/p>\n

At this point, you’re probably wondering why bother with a div()<\/em> function, and why place it in stdlib.h<\/code> and not the math.h<\/code> header? That’s because the div()<\/em> function doesn’t just divide the numbers. Instead it returns a div_t<\/em> structure (also defined in stdlib.h<\/code>). The div_t<\/em> structure contains two int<\/em> elements: quot<\/code> and rem<\/code> for quotient and remainder, respectively.<\/p>\n

So just like the gazinta, the div()<\/em> function divides two values, returning the quotient and remainder. Here’s sample code:<\/p>\n

\r\n#include <stdio.h>\r\n#include <stdlib.h>\r\n\r\nint main()\r\n{\r\n    div_t result;\r\n    int n,d;\r\n\r\n    printf(\"Enter the numerator: \");\r\n    scanf(\"%d\",&n);\r\n    printf(\"Enter the denominator: \");\r\n    scanf(\"%d\",&d);\r\n\r\n    result = div(n,d);\r\n    printf(\"%d divided by %d equals %d with %d remaining.\\n\",\r\n            n,\r\n            d,\r\n            result.quot,\r\n            result.rem);\r\n\r\n    return(0);\r\n}<\/pre>\n
A div_t<\/em> structure result<\/code> is created at Line 6. The numerator and denominator values are obtained in Lines 9 through 12. The div()<\/em> function is called at Line 14, and the results displayed in a printf()<\/em> statement that spans Lines 15 through 19.<\/p>\n
Here’s a sample run:<\/p>\n
Enter the numerator: 5\r\nEnter the denominator: 4\r\n5 divided by 4 equals 1 with 1 remaining.<\/code><\/pre>\n
This type of code doesn’t deal with real numbers (float<\/em> values) because, just like long division, all values are integers. It’s also different from the modulus operator (%<\/code>) because two values are generated, not just the remainder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Division involves three terms: numerator, denominator, and gazinta. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2554"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-for-dummies.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}