JuliaLang/julia

Document promotion behavior of `div` and `divrem` for `(::Unsigned, ::Signed)`

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#57,855 opened on Mar 21, 2025

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Description

Currently we have

julia> div(UInt(1), -1)
0xffffffffffffffff

This happens because we are returning the promote_type, but violates both common sense, and the documentation which states "Generally equivalent to a mathematical operation x/y without a fractional part".

As such, I propose that we instead make the return type of div(x,y) be ifelse(isa(y, Signed), signed(promote_type(x,y)), promote_type(x,y)). This would obviously be slightly breaking, but I think it qualifies as a bugfix.

We also would want to make similar changes for divrem, fld, cld since they all have the same problem.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the implementation of div, divrem, fld, cld in Julia's base/integer.jl, trace how promote type determines the return type for mixed signed/unsigned operations, and test the proposed fix.
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None
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
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Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Julia
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75