# How do I get the integer part of a number by using basic arithmetic?

While it is trivial to simply remove the fractional part of an irrational or rational number, and in programming I could just use the floor() or ceil() functions, I was wondering how such calculation is done using basic arithmetic.

In other words, how can I get the integer part of a (base-10) number using merely addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?

Perhaps this is trivial, but after a bit of trying and a bit of googling, I couldn't quite get my head around it. Maybe it is not so trivial after all?

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I don't think that it can be done, because no member in the set of rational numbers, other than 0 and 1, has any privileged position under these operations. –  Klortho Nov 21 '12 at 19:59

It's impossible.

If you consider the set of all functions $P$ containing $f(x) = x$ and when $f,g \in P$ we have the sum $f(x)+g(x) \in P$, etc. then

Theorem $\text{floor}$ is not contained in $P$.

proof: We prove this by finding a property that everything in $P$ has but $\text{floor}$ does not. All functions in $P$ are continuous, but floor is not.

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You mean that $P={\bf Z}(X)$ (rational functions with integeral coefficients)? (Which, incidentally, is the same as ${\bf Q}(X)$.) ;) –  tomasz Nov 21 '12 at 20:47
It sounds very convincing, but I'm afraid my mathematical skills are too limited to follow your reasoning. Does this mean that floor() is a unique mathematical operation that cannot be expressed by other mathematical operations (log, sum, exp), or is it only impossible with basic arithmetics? –  Abel Nov 21 '12 at 21:03
@Abel, Actually this is very simple and you will understand it fine. The idea is that floor has a special property that +, -, *, / and even log and exp don't have (but I didn't include log and exp in the proof), so you can never build it out of those operation. It's exactly like you said, it's a unique operation. –  sperners lemma Nov 21 '12 at 21:06
that "special property" is that it jumps (meaning it's not continuous somewhere): floor(0.98)=0, floor(0.99)=0, floor(1)=1, floor(1.01)=1 none of the other functions have a jump like that, and combining them doesn't create a jump. –  sperners lemma Nov 21 '12 at 21:07
The jumping example makes it clear, thanks. Somehow it sounds odd, though you probably know what you are talking about. I mean, you can express multiplication with addition, you can express log with power series and so on. I guess I just never gave it too much thought until today when I found out I couldn't easily find a simple solution. –  Abel Nov 21 '12 at 21:12

It is possible to find the integer part of any number divided by two using basic arithmetic:

$$\text{Floor}\left(\frac{n}{2}\right) = \frac{n}{2} - \frac{1}{4} + \frac{(-1)^n}{4}.$$

I'm not aware of a solution for division by other numbers.

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You mean any integer divided by two. –  TonyK Aug 23 at 17:57