Talk:Square root

It won't truncate -- integer truncation only occurs when you have one integer divided by another. If one of the two terms is a float, then the other will be automatically converted to a float before performing the operation. --Heeheehee 17:43, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

It can be a bit confusing for some. square_root() works a little differently than most math operations. For example:

float f; f = 5 / 2;

will return 2.0

This is, of course, because the operation has only integers to use, and thus computes an integer result; THEN it converts this to a float. If either of the two numbers is a float (ie "5.0 / 2" or "5 / 2.0") the result would be 2.5, as "expected," because when two different datatypes are used, an implicit conversion to the most precise type is the norm. So it is a bit "unexpected" that square_root() will accept an int, and make an automatic float conversion. We should probably note this somewhere... --StDoodle (#1059825) 15:32, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

• Whoa, whoa, WHOA! What the heck are you going on about? square_root() is a function that returns a float. It's not a mathematical operator. Like any other function it will always return a value of the appropriate type, even if its parameters are integers. Do you think it is somehow tricky for a function that takes integer parameters to return a float? That's just silly. --Bale 20:10, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Though I'm sure the semantics differ between languages, a mathematical operator is essentially just a shorthanded function. As my code sample shows, you can "return a float" without that float necessarily being what one would expect from the mathematical operation (assuming you can accept the idea that a mathematical operation is essentially a function). For some idea what I mean, check this out:

float division(int a, int b) {
   return a / b;
}

float division(float a, int b) {
   return a / b;
}

float division(float a, float b) {
   return a / b;
}

void main() {
   print("Integers: 5 / 2 = " + division(5,2));
   print("Mixed: 5.0 / 2 = " + division(5.0,2));
   print("Integers: 5.0 / 2.0 = " + division(5.0,2.0));
}

As we don't have any other functions that accept a numerical paramters without being specifically overloaded to return a type matching the least restricted parameter type, it's hard to tell what's "normal" behavior for a math function in KoLmafia; which is why I pointed out that one might be tempted to use mathematical operators as one's basis. By the way, by this logic, square_root(5) would return 2.0; which is a float, but after conversion from its int counterpart (similar to what happens in the division above). BTW, I'm not saying I personally thought that was how square_root() would behave; I'm just trying to defend the assumption that was made in the original code sample as being not unreasonable. --StDoodle (#1059825) 23:31, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

That sounds great, but try out this little program and be surprised at the output.

float division (float a, float b) {
	return a/b;
}

void main() {
	print("5/3 = "+ division(5,3));
}

> call division.ash

5/3 = 1.6666666

Some data types are actually converted automatically when required. --Bale 07:18, 30 June 2010 (UTC)