splitting a number into the integer and decimal parts

Use math.modf:

import math
x = 1234.5678
math.modf(x) # (0.5678000000000338, 1234.0)

We can use a not famous built-in function; divmod:

>>> s = 1234.5678
>>> i, d = divmod(s, 1)
>>> i
1234.0
>>> d
0.5678000000000338