Keeping trailing zeros

Question

I would like to keep trailing zeros, for example, if I type:

round(5.2, 3)

I would like the output to be:

5.200

score 108 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 16 '13 at 22:33

108

If this is for printing purposes, sprintf is what you are after:

> sprintf("%.3f", round(5.2,3))
[1] "5.200"

See ?sprintf for formatting details.

edited Apr 16 '13 at 22:33

Robert Harvey

answered Mar 28 '11 at 12:11

Chase

3

@Chase: Is there the possibility to output a numeric value instead of a character??? – Marco Mar 28 '11 at 12:30
5

@Marco: I think no, a numeric value does not have trailing zeros. – daroczig Mar 28 '11 at 12:32
@Marco `5.2` == `5.200` they are the same number, the only difference is how the number is represented as a String – tim_yates Mar 28 '11 at 12:35
@tim_yates: Yes, of course this is the same. The reason why I was wondering is, as it was suspected, is printing purpose. – Marco Mar 28 '11 at 12:36
If it's not for printing purposes what could be used instead of `sprintf(...)`? – rnorouzian Feb 22 '17 at 21:49
@rnorouzian then we use as is: `5.2`. – zx8754 Jul 22 '19 at 11:24

score 68 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '11 at 12:10

68

When you print it out, you should be able to do:

formatC( round( 5.2, 3 ), format='f', digits=3 )

answered Mar 28 '11 at 12:10

tim_yates

Thank you. I am sorry, I cannot accept more than one answer. I have chosen to accept the previous one since Chase has a lower reputation score. However, your solution is very good as well. Thank you again! – Marco Mar 28 '11 at 12:25
How about something that works both for printing and non-printing purposes? – rnorouzian Feb 22 '17 at 22:03
1

I don't understand what you mean – tim_yates Feb 23 '17 at 00:04
3

Is there anything that could be changed using 'options()' in order to keep trailing zeros? I understand 5.2 == 5.200 but, in my case, for visual consitency it would be nice to keep trailing zeros. Since I am using annotate with 'parse=T' a string such as provided by 'formatC' isn't enough. – dudu Jan 02 '18 at 11:20
Previously, I rounded like that but stopped because I thought there was an unnecessary step with the round() function. Do you remember why we are/were doing this: formatC(round( 5.455, 2), format='f', digits=2 ) and not this: formatC(5.455, format='f', digits=2 ) It seems as if both are rounding according to the IEEE standard (next even number). – Poza Jun 17 '23 at 11:48

2 Answers2