Generic Numeric division

Question

As a general rule, we can take any value of any number type, and divide it by any non-zero value of any number type, and get a reasonable result.

212.7 / 6           


        

Answer 1

The reason is because integer division and float division are two very different operations, so all Numerics do not share a common division operation, although humans might think of them both as "division."

The workaround would be to create 4 division operations: Integral/Integral, Integral/Fractional, Fractional/Integral, Fractional/Fractional. Do the calculation in whatever application-specific way you feel is appropriate. When I did this for a calculator I wrote, I kept it in Integral if possible, and cast to Double otherwise.