In Python, integers (int) represent whole numbers without decimal points and offer unlimited precision, while floats represent decimal numbers and are stored in IEEE 754 double-precision format with limited precision.
Key differences include:
Definition and Syntax: Integers are written without a decimal point (e.g.,
5), whereas floats include a decimal point or scientific notation (e.g.,3.14or2.5e2).Precision and Accuracy: Integers provide infinite precision for counting and discrete values, whereas floats may suffer from rounding errors and representation issues due to fixed-size binary storage.
Memory and Performance: Integers typically occupy less memory compared to floats, which require more space to store decimal components.
Division Behavior: Integer division using
//returns an integer (floor), while standard division/always returns a float.
Conversion between types is handled by built-in functions:
int(float_num)truncates the decimal part (e.g.,int(10.9)becomes10), whereasround(float_num)rounds to the nearest integer.float(int_num)adds a decimal point (e.g.,float(5)becomes5.0).Converting a string containing a decimal point (e.g.,
"3.4") directly to an integer raises aValueError; it must first be converted to a float.
| Feature | Integer (int) | Float (float) |
| Representation | Whole numbers (e.g., 42, -17) | Decimal numbers (e.g., 3.14, -0.5) |
| Precision | Unlimited (limited only by memory) | Limited (IEEE 754 standard) |
| Memory Usage | Typically less | Typically more |
| Division | // returns integer | / returns float |
| Use Cases | Counting, indexing | Measurements, continuous data |
There are many reasons: It is faster for the computer to do math with integers than with floats. Floats accumulate errors, so if you don't need them, integers are more robust. For example 0.1+0.2 != 0.3. There are situations in which floats don't make sense but integers do. For example when accessing an item in a list, my_list[3] makes sense but my_list[3.57] does not. Every programming language (except JavaScript) also separates them. Many also have more than 1 type of int and float (for different sizes). Answer from calcopiritus on reddit.com
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › difference-between-integer-and-float-in-python
Difference Between Integer and Float in Python - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - Positive Integer: 42 Negative Integer: -17 Large Integer: 9876543210123456789012345678901234567890 Sum Result: 25 Product Result: 414814814825185185138518518513851851851380 · In Python, a float is a numeric data type representing decimal numbers.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › why do we need to differentiate between float numbers and integers?
r/learnpython on Reddit: Why do we need to differentiate between float numbers and integers?
August 13, 2022 -
Hi all. Im a complete beginner learning the basics. Im curious as to why Python has two different types of numbers (3 including complex) : Floats and integers. Why cant we just use any number and if we do wanna use a decimal point, we just use a decimal point without having to indicate it as a float? What is the significance of differentiating the two? Thanks!
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There are many reasons: It is faster for the computer to do math with integers than with floats. Floats accumulate errors, so if you don't need them, integers are more robust. For example 0.1+0.2 != 0.3. There are situations in which floats don't make sense but integers do. For example when accessing an item in a list, my_list[3] makes sense but my_list[3.57] does not. Every programming language (except JavaScript) also separates them. Many also have more than 1 type of int and float (for different sizes).
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we just use a decimal point without having to indicate it as a float We can? print(type(1.5)) # There are at least 2 very good reasons to have separate types, though. The first is logical. Floating point math is inexact. For example: >>> (1 - 0.1) - 0.9 0.0 >>> (1 - 0.05 - 0.05) - 0.9 -1.1102230246251565e-16 As you can see, the more calculations with make with floating point arithmetic, the more likely it is we'll accumulate inaccuracies. This does not happen with integers, and we would certainly like to have the option of avoiding this problem whenever possible. It's not possible to eliminate this problem in rational numbers without giving a fractional number unlimited storage space, which is obviously undesirable in a variety of use cases. The second is practical. The algorithms for integer arithmetic are dramatically different. Integer arithmetic uses 2's complement, and floating point arithmetic uses the IEEE 754 standard for representing decimal numbers and performing computations on them. These different representations are what allows us to preserve precision in integers. Also, integer arithmetic is much faster than floating point arithmetic. When only integer arithmetic is needed over a large amount of data, computation will be significantly faster.
Clarifying the float/int/complex special case - Typing - Discussions on Python.org
The type system has a special case where int is considered to be compatible with float, and in turn float is compatible with complex. This was added for pragmatic reasons in PEP 484. This behavior is currently specified in the typing spec as follows (Special types in annotations — typing ... More on discuss.python.org
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May 23, 2024Why do we need to differentiate between float numbers and integers?
There are many reasons: It is faster for the computer to do math with integers than with floats. Floats accumulate errors, so if you don't need them, integers are more robust. For example 0.1+0.2 != 0.3. There are situations in which floats don't make sense but integers do. For example when accessing an item in a list, my_list[3] makes sense but my_list[3.57] does not. Every programming language (except JavaScript) also separates them. Many also have more than 1 type of int and float (for different sizes). More on reddit.com
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August 13, 2022Float and int function
float() and int() are mainly use to convert strings to numbers. They actually create a number from the strings. int() is also often use to create an integer number from a float number. A classic example is when you ask the user for a number. The input function always returns a string of character. To perform calculation you need a number (int or float). So you must create a number from that string. As in: string_number = input("Enter temperature in °F (integer): ") temp_far = int(string_number) temp_cel = (temp_far-32) * (5/9) # the result here is a float print("Temperature in celsius (float)", temp_cel) temp_cel_int = int(temp_cel) # creates an integer number from the float print("Temperature in Celsius (integer)", temp_cel_int) Using float on strings from math import radians angle_string = input("Enter a precise angle in degrees with decimal: ") angle_float = float(angle_string) radians_float = radians(angle_float) print("That angle in degrees is",radians_float,"in radians") More on reddit.com
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March 25, 2023Do you normally use string.format() or percentage (%) to format your Python strings?
Firstly, you can write e. g. {0:.2f} to specify a float with 2 decimals, see e. g. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-string-formatters-in-python-3
Secondly, the best formatting method is f-strings, see e. g. https://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2018/03/13/python-3-an-intro-to-f-strings/
More on reddit.com 130
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June 3, 2018Videos
Floats and Integers | How To Python - YouTube
Python Integers vs Floats - Visually Explained
05:33
[Practice Problems] Python Integers vs Floats - Visually Explained ...
Integers vs Floats in Python | What's the Difference? - YouTube
Python Float vs Integer
Python tutorial: Part 3: INT, FLOAT, STRING
Top answer 1 of 4
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It has nothing about utility, it has to do with what are the possible range of values you're program should/needs to accept.
If it needs to accept both integers and floats as inputs, then you should convert to float since floats can represent the integers.
But if you're program requires that the input be specifically an integer, then you should be casting to int.
EDIT:
In your example, you should always be using float, since money has a decimal value.
If you were asking "How many bananas did you buy?" You'd want to convert to int since those values are going to be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, .... And then when you ask "How much did you pay for these bananas?" You'd want to convert to float since those inputs can range from 3.15, .77, 1, 1.00, ... etc.
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- So that you can work with numbers. You can't very well multiply
'3'by'2'in Python. - So that you can work with floating-point numbers. Some things in life can come in bits and pieces, like kilograms, seconds, or grade point averages.
- If your program needs to work with the numbers between consecutive integers, you should probably use
float. - If you use strings in your program, you may want them to be numbers, regardless of where the strings came from.
- You'll need to evaluate this on a case-by-case basis.
Processing
processing.org › examples › integersfloats
Integers Floats / Examples / Processing.org
Floats are used when * more precision is needed. */ int a = 0; // Create a variable "a" of the datatype "int" float b = 0.0; // Create a variable "b" of the datatype "float" void setup() { size(640, 360); stroke(255); } void draw() { background(0); ...
Codeguage
codeguage.com › v1 › courses › python › numbers-basics
Python Number Basics - int and float
We cannot provide a description for this page right now
Data Science Discovery
discovery.cs.illinois.edu › guides › Python-Fundamentals › Python-data-types
Python Data Types - Data Science Discovery
Here's a summary of some commonly used data types in Python: Integer (int): Whole numbers without any decimal point, e.g., 5, -10, 100. Float (float): Numbers with a decimal point or numbers written in exponential form, e.g., 3.14, -0.001, 2.5e2.
CodingNomads
codingnomads.com › python-float-python-integer
Python Float and Python Integer
You might call both 1 and 2.5 ... of numbers that Python uses are: Integers: Whole numbers without a decimal point, such as 1 · Floating-Point Numbers: Decimal numbers, such as 1.23...
Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-difference-between-an-integer-type-variable-and-a-float-type-variable-in-Python
What is the difference between an integer type variable and a float type variable in Python? - Quora
What is the difference between a local variable, an instance variable, and a class variable in Python? ... Think of math. Or look up the definition of integer and real number. Int type only holds integer numbers. Floats hold floating point, ...
Python documentation
docs.python.org › 3 › library › stdtypes.html
Built-in Types — Python 3.14.3 documentation
February 25, 2026 - Also referred to as integer division. For operands of type int, the result has type int. For operands of type float, the result has type float. In general, the result is a whole integer, though the result’s type is not necessarily int.
Python.org
discuss.python.org › typing
Clarifying the float/int/complex special case - Typing - Discussions on Python.org
May 23, 2024 - The type system has a special case where int is considered to be compatible with float, and in turn float is compatible with complex. This was added for pragmatic reasons in PEP 484. This behavior is currently specified in the typing spec as follows (Special types in annotations — typing documentation): Python’s numeric types complex, float and int are not subtypes of each other, but to support common use cases, the type system contains a straightforward shortcut: when an argument is annotate...
W3Schools
w3schools.com › python › python_numbers.asp
Python Numbers
... x = 1 y = 35656222554887711 z = -3255522 print(type(x)) print(type(y)) print(type(z)) Try it Yourself » · Float, or "floating point number" is a number, positive or negative, containing one or more decimals.
SwCarpentry
swcarpentry.github.io › python-novice-gapminder › 03-types-conversion.html
Plotting and Programming in Python: Data Types and Type Conversion
May 2, 2023 - Integer (int): represents positive or negative whole numbers like 3 or -512. Floating point number (float): represents real numbers like 3.14159 or -2.5.
Sololearn
sololearn.com › en › Discuss › 3057798 › difference-between-float-and-int
Difference between float and int | Sololearn: Learn to code for FREE!
integers are numbers without a decimal point, whereas floats are numbers with a decimal point. An additional information : double is more precise than float , double can store 64 bits ( and float can store only 32 bits ) Double is for storing ...
Python.org
discuss.python.org › typing
Clarifying the float/int/complex special case - Page 2 - Typing - Discussions on Python.org
May 26, 2024 - The type system has a special case where int is considered to be compatible with float, and in turn float is compatible with complex. This was added for pragmatic reasons in PEP 484. This behavior is currently specified…
Real Python
realpython.com › python-data-types
Basic Data Types in Python: A Quick Exploration – Real Python
December 21, 2024 - Once you call the function, you get the resulting integer value. ... Floating-point numbers, or just float, are numbers with a decimal place. For example, 1.0 and 3.14 are floating-point numbers.
Snakify
snakify.org › integer and float numbers
Integer and float numbers - Learn Python 3 - Snakify
When we read an integer value, we read a line with input() and then cast a string to integer using int(). When we read a floating-point number, we need to cast the string to float using float(): ... Floats with very big or very small absolute value can be written using a scientific notation. Eg., the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 1.496·1011, or 1.496e11 in Python.
Codenga
codenga.com › pages › guides › float_vs_integer
Float and Integer - What's the Difference?
The topic of integers and floats interests us in the context of programming. Therefore, it is worth showing a few examples now. Here is a Python code snippet that demonstrates two variables, one of type integer and the other of type float. It is worth noting that in Python, you do not need ...
Codedamn
codedamn.com › news › python
Converting Float to Int in Python: A Step-by-Step Guide
July 3, 2023 - Before we start converting between types, it's crucial to understand what floats and integers are. In Python, an integer (int) is a number without a decimal point. A floating-point number (float), on the other hand, is a number that contains ...
W3Resource
w3resource.com › python-interview › explain-the-difference-between-the-int-and-float-data-types.php
Difference between the int and float data types in Python
August 12, 2023 - In Python, they are represented ... so once created, their value cannot be changed. ... Floating-point numbers represent real numbers and can have fractions....
code monk
drj11.wordpress.com › 2009 › 02 › 27 › python-integer-int-float
Python: integer, int, float | code monk
February 27, 2009 - So, I have a suggestion: anything in Python that currently requires an int should accept an integer. ... I find this just annoying. 1e6 is an integer. Yes it happens to be stored in a float, but you, Python, ought not to care about that.