How to set minimum value to a division operation in python?

Question

Is there a standard library function which will set a minimum value to a division operation, for example:

min(1, a/b)

This will ensure that min value of operation above will always be 1, never 0.

Such as:

min(1, 1/5)
1

Also, how do I round up a division:

round_up(1/5) = 1

I always get "0" when I divide 1/5, even with ceil function:

math.ceil(1/5)
0

Answer 1

If you want to use floating point division as default, you can do from __future__ import division:

>>> 1/5
0
>>> from __future__ import division
>>> 1/5
0.2
>>> math.ceil(1/5)
1.0

If you need the result to be of integer type, e.g. for indexing, you can use

int(math.ceil(1/5))