Question: I have two integer values `a` and `b`, but I need their ratio in floating point. I know that `a < b` and I want to calculate `a / b`, so if I use integer division I'll always get 0 with a remainder of `a`.

How can I force `c` to be a floating point number in Python 2 in the following?

```
c = a / b

```

---

In 3.x, the behaviour is reversed; see [Why does integer division yield a float instead of another integer?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1282945) for the opposite, 3.x-specific problem.

Answer: 
You can cast to float by doing `c = a / float(b)`. If the numerator or denominator is a float, then the result will be also.

---

A caveat: as commenters have pointed out, this won't work if `b` might be something other than an integer or floating-point number (or a string representing one). If you might be dealing with other types (such as complex numbers) you'll need to either check for those or use a different method.
Add a dot (`.`) to indicate floating point numbers

```
>>> 4/3.
1.3333333333333333

```