Evaluate modular fractions

Question

If I have a list of numbers l = {256/11, 258/11, 263/11, 263/11, -22, -22, 251/11, 0, 261/11, -22, 265/11, 259/11, 0, 259/11} which I want to evaluate mod 26, how do I do that? I know I can do Mod[l, 26], but that just gives me {256/11, 258/11, 263/11, 263/11, 4, 4, 251/11, 0, 261/11, 4, 265/11, 259/11, 0, 259/11} without evaluating the fractions. How do I perform this calculation so that every element is an integer mod 26?

Answer 1

PowerMod can help:

fracMod = Mod[Numerator[#] * PowerMod[Denominator@#, -1, 26], 26] &;

fracMod@{256/11, 258/11, 263/11, 263/11, -22, -22, 251/11, 0, 
  261/11, -22, 265/11, 259/11, 0, 259/11}
(*  {2, 14, 5, 5, 4, 4, 11, 0, 19, 4, 17, 7, 0, 7}  *)

---

Addendum -- General-purpose function

ClearAll[ratMod];
SetAttributes[ratMod, Listable]; 
ratMod[Rational[n_, d_], m_] := Mod[n*PowerMod[d, -1, m], m];
ratMod[n_Integer, m_] := Mod[n, m];
ratMod[m_][x_] := ratMod[x, m];      (* operator form *)

OP's example:

ratMod[26]@ {256/11, 258/11, 263/11, 263/11, -22, -22, 251/11, 0, 
   261/11, -22, 265/11, 259/11, 0, 259/11}
(*  {2, 14, 5, 5, 4, 4, 11, 0, 19, 4, 17, 7, 0, 7}  *)

Listability with the operator form requires Through:

ratMod[{13, 26}]@ {256/11, 258/11, 263/11, 263/11, -22, -22, 251/11, 0,
    261/11, -22, 265/11, 259/11, 0, 259/11} // Through
(*
  {{2,  1, 5, 5, 4, 4, 11, 0,  6, 4,  4, 7, 0, 7},
   {2, 14, 5, 5, 4, 4, 11, 0, 19, 4, 17, 7, 0, 7}}
*)

Answer 2

I guess what Mod[a/b, c] means is that there is an integer z such that Mod[b*z,c] is equal to Mod[a, c]. Assuming this, consider the first fraction 256/11. You can find the integer z using

FindInstance[Mod[11*z, 26] == Mod[256, 26], z, Integers]
{{z -> 2}}

You can also replace FindInstance by Solve or by Reduce. You can turn this into a function straightforwardly and apply it to your list l:

frac[q_] := First@FindInstance[
    Mod[Denominator[q]*z, 26] == Mod[Numerator[q], 26], z, Integers];
sol = frac[#] & /@ l;
z /. sol

{2, 14, 5, 5, 4, 4, 11, 0, 19, 4, 17, 7, 0, 7}