[R] writing a matrix to a file with trailing zeroes

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 17/07/2016 11:33 AM, Erin Hodgess wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> I'm looking at this problem, and I'm sure there is a straightforward
> solution.  I have a matrix and some of the values have zeroes to the right
> of the decimal point.  When I write these to a file, the zeroes disappear.
> The material below is what I have tried so far.
>
>
>
>> x2
>               x          y
> [1,] -1.3611521  5.0000000
> [2,] -0.8521120 -1.0512976
> [3,] -0.9652820 -0.1306795
> [4,] -0.4319187  1.2483199
> [5,] -0.7548402  1.3404867
> [6,]  6.0000000  2.5000000
>
>> write.table(sprintf("%.1f",t(x2)),row.name=FALSE,col.name=FALSE,file="")
> "-1.4"
> "5.0"
> "-0.9"
> "-1.1"
> "-1.0"
> "-0.1"
> "-0.4"
> "1.2"
> "-0.8"
> "1.3"
> "6.0"
> "2.5"
>> write(sprintf("%.1f",t(x2)),file="")
> -1.4
> 5.0
> -0.9
> -1.1
> -1.0
> -0.1
> -0.4
> 1.2
> -0.8
> 1.3
> 6.0
> 2.5
>> write(round(t(x2),1),file="")
> -1.4 5 -0.9 -1.1 -1
> -0.1 -0.4 1.2 -0.8 1.3
> 6 2.5
>> write(round(t(x2),1),file="",ncol=2)
> -1.4 5
> -0.9 -1.1
> -1 -0.1
> -0.4 1.2
> -0.8 1.3
> 6 2.5
>>
>
>
> Still no luck.  I need the 5 in the first line to be 5.0 and the 6 in the
> last line to be 6.0.
>
> Any suggestions, please?

Your second try comes close.  Why not just add ncol=2 to it, i.e.

write(sprintf("%.1f",t(x2)),file="", ncol=2)

Duncan Murdoch