[R] Beginner's question: number formatting

[Prof Brian Ripley]

sprintf("%03d", 2)
formatC(2, width=3, flag="0")

both give

[1] "002"

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008, Michal Figurski wrote:

> Hello R-helpers,
>
> I have a problem with formatting a single number to show leading zeros. For 
> example, I want "2" displayed as "002".

I hope you meant that you want 2, not "2", so displayed.  Otherwise you 
need as.numeric("2") here.

> My numbers have 1 to 3 digits and I would like them all to display 3 digits 
> for printing. I know I could use "paste" in a loop with several "if"s, but I 
> was wondering if there is a single function that can do this.
>
> I have tried "format", "prettyNum" and "formatC" back and forth, but these 
> functions don't seem to be able to display leading zeros. Please help.

You will find studying the help more productive than 'tried ... back and 
forth'.

-- 
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