Fast ceiling of an integer division in C / C++
Asked 07 September, 2021
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Given integer values x and y, C and C++ both return as the quotient q = x/y the floor of the floating point equivalent. I'm interested in a method of returning the ceiling instead. For example, ceil(10/5)=2 and ceil(11/5)=3.

The obvious approach involves something like:

q = x / y;
if (q * y < x) ++q;

This requires an extra comparison and multiplication; and other methods I've seen (used in fact) involve casting as a float or double. Is there a more direct method that avoids the additional multiplication (or a second division) and branch, and that also avoids casting as a floating point number?

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