Reading the documentation

[MRAB]

On 2017-08-24 20:24, Stefan Ram wrote:
>    This is a transcript:
> 
>>>> from math import floor
>>>> floor( "2.3" )
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
> TypeError: must be real number, not str
>>>> help(floor)
> Help on built-in function floor in module math:
> 
> floor(...)
>      floor(x)
> 
>      Return the floor of x as an Integral.
>      This is the largest integer <= x.
> 
>    Is the output of »help(floor)« supposed to be a kind of
>    normative documentation, i.e., /the/ authoritative
>    documentation of »floor«?
> 
>    Is there any hint in the documentation about the type
>    expected of arguments in a call?
> 
>    Is a parameter name »x« (as used above) described
>    somewhere to express the requirement of a real number?
> 
>    It seems, »real« means »int or float«. Is this meaning
>    of »real« documented somewhere?
> 
>    Thanks in advance!
> 
As the module is called "math", it's not surprising that "floor" expects 
a number and rejects a string.

There's also a "cmath" module, which handles complex numbers.

"real" can be int, float or Decimal, but not complex.