Coding challenge?

[Dar Scott]

On May 30, 2005, at 6:56 PM, Dennis Brown wrote:

> Trunc(number) is simply the integer function.  It hands you back the 
> number with any decimal portions thrown away (no rounding).  10.1 
> becomes 10 and 10.99999 becomes 10.
>
> Mod is the remainder function from a division.  It performs a division 
> and throws away the answer but hands you back the remainder.  10.99999 
> mod 10 is 0.99999.  10.99999/10 the answer is 1 with a remainder of 
> 0.99999.

Good summary.  I'll add...

Both trunc() and mod have variations in different programming language 
and in spreadsheet formulas.  They are also found in mathematics.  So, 
getting up to speed on these is a good investment when one has the 
time.

There is a gotcha: negative numbers.  Different programming languages 
and spreadsheets might define those in slightly different ways that 
cause the behavior to be different for negative numbers.  More so, a 
mathematician or computer scientist might point out that from his 
corner, the Transcript "mod" is more like "remainder" and is not the 
"mod" function mathematicians use.  This is only different for negative 
numbers.

My advice--if these are new concepts--is to limit these to positive 
numbers until you need to dig deeper.

Dar

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