Division (/)
The division (/) operator produces the quotient of its operands where the left operand is the dividend and the right operand is the divisor.
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Syntax
js
x / y
Description
The / operator is overloaded for two types of operands: number and BigInt. It first coerces both operands to numeric values and tests the types of them. It performs BigInt division if both operands becomes BigInts; otherwise, it performs number division. A TypeError is thrown if one operand becomes a BigInt but the other becomes a number.
For BigInt division, the result is the quotient of the two operands truncated towards zero, and the remainder is discarded. A RangeError is thrown if the divisor y is 0n. This is because number division by zero returns Infinity or -Infinity, but BigInt has no concept of infinity.
Examples
Basic division
js
1 / 2; // 0.5
Math.floor(3 / 2); // 1
1.0 / 2.0; // 0.5
1n / 2n; // 0n
5n / 3n; // 1n
-1n / 3n; // 0n
1n / -3n; // 0n
2n / 2; // TypeError: Cannot mix BigInt and other types, use explicit conversions
// To do division with a BigInt and a non-BigInt, convert either operand
2n / BigInt(2); // 1n
Number(2n) / 2; // 1
Division by zero
js
2.0 / 0; // Infinity
2.0 / 0.0; // Infinity, because 0.0 === 0
2.0 / -0.0; // -Infinity
2n / 0n; // RangeError: Division by zero
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-multiplicative-operators |
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