<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Floating-Point Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Floating-Point Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Floating-Point Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions.html#C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions" rel="up" title="C-Style I/O Functions"> <link href="Other-Output-Conversions.html#Other-Output-Conversions" rel="next" title="Other Output Conversions"> <link href="Integer-Conversions.html#Integer-Conversions" rel="prev" title="Integer Conversions"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Floating_002dPoint-Conversions"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Other-Output-Conversions.html#Other-Output-Conversions" accesskey="n" rel="next">Other Output Conversions</a>, Previous: <a href="Integer-Conversions.html#Integer-Conversions" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Integer Conversions</a>, Up: <a href="C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions.html#C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions" accesskey="u" rel="up">C-Style I/O Functions</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Floating_002dPoint-Conversions-1"></a> <h4 class="subsection">14.2.9 Floating-Point Conversions</h4> <p>This section discusses the conversion specifications for floating-point numbers: the ‘<samp>%f</samp>’, ‘<samp>%e</samp>’, ‘<samp>%E</samp>’, ‘<samp>%g</samp>’, and ‘<samp>%G</samp>’ conversions. </p> <p>The ‘<samp>%f</samp>’ conversion prints its argument in fixed-point notation, producing output of the form [<code><span class="nolinebreak">-</span></code>]<var>ddd</var><code>.</code><var>ddd</var><!-- /@w -->, where the number of digits following the decimal point is controlled by the precision you specify. </p> <p>The ‘<samp>%e</samp>’ conversion prints its argument in exponential notation, producing output of the form [<code><span class="nolinebreak">-</span></code>]<var>d</var><code>.</code><var>ddd</var><code>e</code>[<code>+</code>|<code><span class="nolinebreak">-</span></code>]<var>dd</var><!-- /@w -->. Again, the number of digits following the decimal point is controlled by the precision. The exponent always contains at least two digits. The ‘<samp>%E</samp>’ conversion is similar but the exponent is marked with the letter ‘<samp>E</samp>’ instead of ‘<samp>e</samp>’. </p> <p>The ‘<samp>%g</samp>’ and ‘<samp>%G</samp>’ conversions print the argument in the style of ‘<samp>%e</samp>’ or ‘<samp>%E</samp>’ (respectively) if the exponent would be less than -4 or greater than or equal to the precision; otherwise they use the ‘<samp>%f</samp>’ style. Trailing zeros are removed from the fractional portion of the result and a decimal-point character appears only if it is followed by a digit. </p> <p>The following flags can be used to modify the behavior: </p> <dl compact="compact"> <dt>‘<samp>-</samp>’</dt> <dd><p>Left-justify the result in the field. Normally the result is right-justified. </p> </dd> <dt>‘<samp>+</samp>’</dt> <dd><p>Always include a plus or minus sign in the result. </p> </dd> <dt>‘<samp> </samp>’</dt> <dd><p>If the result doesn’t start with a plus or minus sign, prefix it with a space instead. Since the ‘<samp>+</samp>’ flag ensures that the result includes a sign, this flag is ignored if you supply both of them. </p> </dd> <dt>‘<samp>#</samp>’</dt> <dd><p>Specifies that the result should always include a decimal point, even if no digits follow it. For the ‘<samp>%g</samp>’ and ‘<samp>%G</samp>’ conversions, this also forces trailing zeros after the decimal point to be left in place where they would otherwise be removed. </p> </dd> <dt>‘<samp>0</samp>’</dt> <dd><p>Pad the field with zeros instead of spaces; the zeros are placed after any sign. This flag is ignored if the ‘<samp>-</samp>’ flag is also specified. </p></dd> </dl> <p>The precision specifies how many digits follow the decimal-point character for the ‘<samp>%f</samp>’, ‘<samp>%e</samp>’, and ‘<samp>%E</samp>’ conversions. For these conversions, the default precision is <code>6</code>. If the precision is explicitly <code>0</code>, this suppresses the decimal point character entirely. For the ‘<samp>%g</samp>’ and ‘<samp>%G</samp>’ conversions, the precision specifies how many significant digits to print. Significant digits are the first digit before the decimal point, and all the digits after it. If the precision is <code>0</code> or not specified for ‘<samp>%g</samp>’ or ‘<samp>%G</samp>’, it is treated like a value of <code>1</code>. If the value being printed cannot be expressed precisely in the specified number of digits, the value is rounded to the nearest number that fits. </p> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Other-Output-Conversions.html#Other-Output-Conversions" accesskey="n" rel="next">Other Output Conversions</a>, Previous: <a href="Integer-Conversions.html#Integer-Conversions" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Integer Conversions</a>, Up: <a href="C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions.html#C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions" accesskey="u" rel="up">C-Style I/O Functions</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> </body> </html>