How to Use the floor Method in Ruby

09/21/2021

Contents

In this article, you will learn how to use the floor method in Ruby.

The floor Method

In Ruby, the floor method is a built-in method of the Numeric class that rounds a number down to the nearest integer.

Syntax

The syntax for using the floor method is as follows:

number.floor
Parameters
number: The numeric value that you want to round down to the nearest integer.
Example

Here’s an example:

x = 3.5
y = 4.8
z = -2.3

puts x.floor  # Output: 3
puts y.floor  # Output: 4
puts z.floor  # Output: -3

In the above example, we have used the floor method to round down the values of x, y, and z to their nearest integers.

It’s important to note that the floor method always rounds a number down, even if the decimal part is 0.5 or greater. To round a number to the nearest integer, you can use the round method instead.

 

Here’s some more information about the floor method in Ruby:

  • The floor method can be used with any numeric data type in Ruby, including integers, floats, and decimals.
  • If the number is already an integer, the floor method will return the same integer.
  • The floor method is a non-destructive method, which means it does not modify the original number. Instead, it returns a new rounded value.
  • The floor method can also be used with negative numbers. In this case, it will round the number down to the nearest integer that is smaller than the given number.
  • If you try to use the floor method with a non-numeric data type, you will get a NoMethodError.

Here’s an example that demonstrates some of these properties:

num1 = 10
num2 = 3.14
num3 = -5.6
num4 = 7/3.0  # returns a float

puts num1.floor  # Output: 10
puts num2.floor  # Output: 3
puts num3.floor  # Output: -6
puts num4.floor  # Output: 2

In the above example, we have used the floor method with different numeric values, including an integer, a float, a negative number, and a division that returns a float. As you can see, the floor method rounds down each number to the nearest integer according to the rules mentioned earlier.

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