From python2.6, you can get a the integer ratio of a float.
$ ./python Python 2.7b1+ (trunk:80674M, May 1 2010, 08:23:48) [GCC 4.4.1] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> 3.14.as_integer_ratio() (7070651414971679, 2251799813685248) >>> x*1.0/y 3.14 >>>