What happens to the fractional part when a division is performed on two integer variables?

When a division is performed on two integer variables in many programming languages, the result will produce an integer where the fractional part is discarded. This means that if you divide 5 by 2, you would expect a result of 2.5 in a real-number context, but the division performed on integers would yield just 2, as the .5 is removed from the value. This behavior is integral to the concept of integer arithmetic, where results are confined to whole numbers and any decimal portion is simply ignored.

In this context, using integer division helps in scenarios where only whole numbers are required, such as when you want to count how many whole times a number fits into another number without considering any remainders. In contrast, utilizing floating-point division, where at least one operand is a floating point, would allow for results that include fractional values. Therefore, when performing mathematical operations, understanding how different data types affect the output is crucial for achieving the desired calculations.