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

Solution 1

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.

Solution 2

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

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

Comments

[Marco]

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]

@Chase: Is there the possibility to output a numeric value instead of a character???

[daroczig]

@Marco: I think no, a numeric value does not have trailing zeros.

[tim_yates]

@Marco 5.2 == 5.200 they are the same number, the only difference is how the number is represented as a String

[Marco]

@tim_yates: Yes, of course this is the same. The reason why I was wondering is, as it was suspected, is printing purpose.

[rnorouzian]

If it's not for printing purposes what could be used instead of sprintf(...)?

[rnorouzian]

How about something that works both for printing and non-printing purposes?

[tim_yates]

I don't understand what you mean

[dudu]

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.

[zx8754]

@rnorouzian then we use as is: 5.2.