WORKING WITH FRACTIONS

Python supports the Fraction() function (defined in the fractions module), which accepts two integers that represent the numerator and the denominator (which must be non-zero) of a fraction. Several examples of defining and manipulating fractions are shown here:

>>> from fractions import Fraction
>>> a = Fraction(5, 4)
>>> b = Fraction(7, 16)
>>> print(a + b)
27/16
>>> print(a * b) 35/64
>>> # Getting numerator/denominator
>>> c = a * b
>>> c.numerator
35
>>> c.denominator 64
>>> # Converting to a float >>> float(c)
0.546875
>>> # Limiting the denominator of a value
>>> print(c.limit_denominator(8))
4
>>> # Converting a float to a fraction >>> x = 3.75
>>> y = Fraction(*x.as_integer_ratio())
>>> y
Fraction(15, 4)

Before delving into code samples that work with strings, the next section briefly discusses Unicode and UTF-8, both of which are character encodings.