What is the difference between '/' and '//' when used for division?

Question

Is there a benefit to using one over the other? In Python 2, they both seem to return the same results:

>>> 6/3
2
>>> 6//3
2

Answer 1

As everyone has already answered, // is floor division.

Why this is important is that // is unambiguously floor division, in all Python versions from 2.2, including Python 3.x versions.

The behavior of / can change depending on:

• Active __future__ import or not (module-local)
• Python command line option, either -Q old or -Q new