[R] printing decimal numbers

[Thomas Gerds]

sorry, i didnot mean to displease you and i do appreciate R a
lot. (please note that i am not a native speaker and perhaps was
unable to find the appropriate degree of politeness when posting this
request) i was hoping someone could give me a hint about where to find
a discussion on my problem ...

tomy


ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk writes:

> If you know enough to tell people what `should' happen, you know enough 
> to answer your own questions.
>
> Telling people what they `should' do seems pretty arrogant to me.
> R is a free gift to you, and you don't seem to appreciate it.
>
> On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Thomas Gerds wrote:
>
>> 
>> thanks a lot for your answer. i have not enough skills to write my own
>> print.default routine, though. i thought there should be a user-option
>> that allows to change the default behaviour.  anyway, whats the idea
>> of printing 1e-04 instead of 0.0001 and what is the appropriate topic
>> in the help-pages or faq?
>> 
>> cheers,
>> tomy
>> 
>> ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk writes:
>> 
>> > The way to change the behavour of print.default() is to alter the source 
>> > code, which you can do as R is Open Source but you may find daunting.
>> >
>> > I find sprintf() more useful than formatC(), but your mileage may differ.
>> > In either case you can do as the internals of print.default do, and
>> > calculate the format from the characteristics of the set of numbers 
>> > supplied.  Just write your own special-pupose format routine.
>> >
>> > On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Thomas Gerds wrote:
>> >
>> >> 
>> >> > formatC(0.0001, format = "f", digits = 4)
>> >> 
>> >> works fine for this case. however, i need a way to automatize this,
>> >> i.e. to change the default behaviour of print.default!? how could this
>> >> be done? the problem with applying the above solution to a number
>> >> which is the result of a function, say, is that one has to know
>> >> beforehand the number of digits, since
>> >> 
>> >> > formatC(1e-04,format="f",digits=5)
>> >> [1] "0.00010"
>> >> 
>> >> which is also unwanted. 
>> >> 
>> >> thanks a lot so far!
>> >> 
>> >> tomy
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> "Marc Schwartz" <mschwartz at medanalytics.com> writes:
>> >> 
>> >> >>-----Original Message-----
>> >> >>From: r-help-admin at stat.math.ethz.ch 
>> >> >>[mailto:r-help-admin at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Thomas Gerds
>> >> >>Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 11:01 AM
>> >> >>To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>> >> >>Subject: [R] printing decimal numbers
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>hi,
>> >> >>
>> >> >>this is a very basic question -- sorry for posing it:
>> >> >>     
>> >> >>how can i force R to print 0.0001 instead of 1e-04???
>> >> >>
>> >> >>.--------------------.
>> >> >>| > 0.0001           |
>> >> >>| [1] 1e-04          |
>> >> >>`--------------------'
>> >> >>
>> >> >>i tried the functions format, formatC, ... and changed 
>> >> >>options()$digits with no success!
>> >> >>
>> >> >>thanks for advice,
>> >> >>tomy
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > Try:
>> >> >
>> >> >> formatC(0.0001, format = "f", digits = 4)
>> >> > [1] "0.0001"
>> >> >
>> >> > Be sure to use the 'format = "f"' argument.
>> >> >
>> >> > See ?formatC
>> >> >
>> >> > HTH,
>> >> >
>> >> > Marc Schwartz
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >
>> > -- 
>> > Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> > Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> > University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> > 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> > Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>> 
>> 
>
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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