How Does the Modulo Operator Work in Java for Negative Integers?

Java Syntax for Modulo Operation

In programming, the modulo operation calculates the remainder after dividing one number by another. In Java, the syntax for the modulo operator is:

a % b

where a and b are the dividend and divisor, respectively.

For example, if we want to determine if a number is even or odd, we can use the modulo operation to check the remainder when dividing it by 2. The pseudocode for this would be:

if ((a mod 2) == 0)
{
    isEven = true;
}
else
{
    isEven = false;
}

How to Use the Remainder Operator Instead

In Java, the modulo operator has slightly different semantics for negative integers. To perform the modulo operation on non-negative integers, it is recommended to use the remainder operator instead. The syntax for the remainder operator is:

a % b

The remainder operator will always return a non-negative value.

For the example above, we can use the remainder operator as follows:

if ((a % 2) == 0)
{
    isEven = true;
}
else
{
    isEven = false;
}

This can be simplified to a single line:

isEven = (a % 2) == 0;

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