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:mod:`fractions` --- Rational numbers
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=====================================
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:synopsis: Rational numbers.
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.. moduleauthor:: Jeffrey Yasskin <jyasskin at gmail.com>
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.. sectionauthor:: Jeffrey Yasskin <jyasskin at gmail.com>
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The :mod:`fractions` module provides support for rational number arithmetic.
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A Fraction instance can be constructed from a pair of integers, from
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another rational number, or from a string.
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.. class:: Fraction(numerator=0, denominator=1)
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Fraction(other_fraction)
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The first version requires that *numerator* and *denominator* are
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instances of :class:`numbers.Integral` and returns a new
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:class:`Fraction` instance with value ``numerator/denominator``. If
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*denominator* is :const:`0`, it raises a
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:exc:`ZeroDivisionError`. The second version requires that
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*other_fraction* is an instance of :class:`numbers.Rational` and
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returns an :class:`Fraction` instance with the same value. The
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last version of the constructor expects a string or unicode
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instance in one of two possible forms. The first form is::
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[sign] numerator ['/' denominator]
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where the optional ``sign`` may be either '+' or '-' and
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``numerator`` and ``denominator`` (if present) are strings of
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decimal digits. The second permitted form is that of a number
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containing a decimal point::
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[sign] integer '.' [fraction] | [sign] '.' fraction
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where ``integer`` and ``fraction`` are strings of digits. In
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either form the input string may also have leading and/or trailing
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whitespace. Here are some examples::
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>>> from fractions import Fraction
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>>> Fraction(' -3/7 ')
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>>> Fraction('1.414213 \t\n')
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Fraction(1414213, 1000000)
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The :class:`Fraction` class inherits from the abstract base class
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:class:`numbers.Rational`, and implements all of the methods and
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operations from that class. :class:`Fraction` instances are hashable,
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and should be treated as immutable. In addition,
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:class:`Fraction` has the following methods:
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.. method:: from_float(flt)
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This class method constructs a :class:`Fraction` representing the exact
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value of *flt*, which must be a :class:`float`. Beware that
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``Fraction.from_float(0.3)`` is not the same value as ``Fraction(3, 10)``
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.. method:: from_decimal(dec)
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This class method constructs a :class:`Fraction` representing the exact
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value of *dec*, which must be a :class:`decimal.Decimal`.
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.. method:: limit_denominator(max_denominator=1000000)
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Finds and returns the closest :class:`Fraction` to ``self`` that has
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denominator at most max_denominator. This method is useful for finding
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rational approximations to a given floating-point number:
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>>> from fractions import Fraction
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>>> Fraction('3.1415926535897932').limit_denominator(1000)
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or for recovering a rational number that's represented as a float:
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>>> from math import pi, cos
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>>> Fraction.from_float(cos(pi/3))
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Fraction(4503599627370497, 9007199254740992)
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>>> Fraction.from_float(cos(pi/3)).limit_denominator()
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.. function:: gcd(a, b)
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Return the greatest common divisor of the integers `a` and `b`. If
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either `a` or `b` is nonzero, then the absolute value of `gcd(a,
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b)` is the largest integer that divides both `a` and `b`. `gcd(a,b)`
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has the same sign as `b` if `b` is nonzero; otherwise it takes the sign
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of `a`. `gcd(0, 0)` returns `0`.
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Module :mod:`numbers`
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The abstract base classes making up the numeric tower.