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Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 01:14:44 +0100
To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: [RFC] intdiv()
From: ajf@ajf.me (Andrea Faulds)

Good evening again,

PHP currently lacks a way to do integer division. You can floor or int =
cast a floating-point division, but beyond 53-bits that produces the =
wrong result:

$ sapi/cli/php -r 'var_dump((int)(PHP_INT_MAX / 3));'
int(3074457345618258432)

Furthermore, using a floating-point division isn=92t really a proper way =
to do it; it=92s a workaround for a lack of language support for a quite =
basic operation. This RFC proposes a function for integer division, =
intdiv(). It would work properly with 64-bit values:

$ sapi/cli/php -r 'var_dump(intdiv(PHP_INT_MAX, 3));'
int(3074457345618258602)

It works exactly as you=92d expect it to. If you divide by zero, it does =
exactly the same thing the division operator does (E_WARNING and returns =
FALSE).

While this is simple enough, I=92m also considering possibly shortening =
it to div() (more likely to cause conflicts, but easier to type), =
implementing it as an internal function (=E0 la pow()), and perhaps =
implementing it as an infix operator (3 div 2 =3D=3D=3D 1).

The RFC is here: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/intdiv

It elaborates a little more, so I=92d suggest reading it first. What are =
your thoughts? I think this is a simple and obvious addition.

Thanks!
--
Andrea Faulds
http://ajf.me/