Function format #

Format a value of any type into a string.

Syntax #

math.format(value)
math.format(value, options)
math.format(value, precision)
math.format(value, callback)

Where #

• value: * The value to be formatted
• options: Object An object with formatting options. Available options:
  • notation: string Number notation. Choose from:
    • ‘fixed’ Always use regular number notation. For example ‘123.40’ and ‘14000000’
    • ‘exponential’ Always use exponential notation. For example ‘1.234e+2’ and ‘1.4e+7’
    • ‘engineering’ Always use engineering notation: always have exponential notation, and select the exponent to be a multiple of 3. For example ‘123.4e+0’ and ‘14.0e+6’
    • ‘auto’ (default) Regular number notation for numbers having an absolute value between lower and upper bounds, and uses exponential notation elsewhere. Lower bound is included, upper bound is excluded. For example ‘123.4’ and ‘1.4e7’.
    • ‘bin’, ‘oct, or ‘hex’ Format the number using binary, octal, or hexadecimal notation. For example ‘0b1101’ and ‘0x10fe’.
  • wordSize: number The word size in bits to use for formatting in binary, octal, or hexadecimal notation. To be used only with ‘bin’, ‘oct’, or ‘hex’ values for ‘notation’ option. When this option is defined the value is formatted as a signed twos complement integer of the given word size and the size suffix is appended to the output. For example format(-1, {notation: ‘hex’, wordSize: 8}) === ‘0xffi8’. Default value is undefined.
  • precision: number Limit the number of digits of the formatted value. For regular numbers, must be a number between 0 and 16. For bignumbers, the maximum depends on the configured precision, see function config(). In case of notations ‘exponential’, ‘engineering’, and ‘auto’, precision defines the total number of significant digits returned. In case of notation ‘fixed’, precision defines the number of significant digits after the decimal point. precision is undefined by default.
  • lowerExp: number Exponent determining the lower boundary for formatting a value with an exponent when notation='auto. Default value is -3.
  • upperExp: number Exponent determining the upper boundary for formatting a value with an exponent when notation='auto. Default value is 5.
  • fraction: string. Available values: ‘ratio’ (default) or ‘decimal’. For example format(fraction(1, 3)) will output ‘1/3’ when ‘ratio’ is configured, and will output 0.(3) when ‘decimal’ is configured.
• callback: function A custom formatting function, invoked for all numeric elements in value, for example all elements of a matrix, or the real and imaginary parts of a complex number. This callback can be used to override the built-in numeric notation with any type of formatting. Function callback is called with value as parameter and must return a string.

Parameters #

Returns #

Examples #

math.format(6.4)                                        // returns '6.4'
math.format(1240000)                                    // returns '1.24e6'
math.format(1/3)                                        // returns '0.3333333333333333'
math.format(1/3, 3)                                     // returns '0.333'
math.format(21385, 2)                                   // returns '21000'
math.format(12e8, {notation: 'fixed'})                  // returns '1200000000'
math.format(2.3,  {notation: 'fixed', precision: 4})    // returns '2.3000'
math.format(52.8, {notation: 'exponential'})            // returns '5.28e+1'
math.format(12400,{notation: 'engineering'})            // returns '12.400e+3'
math.format(2000, {lowerExp: -2, upperExp: 2})          // returns '2e+3'

function formatCurrency(value) {
  // return currency notation with two digits:
  return '$' + value.toFixed(2)

  // you could also use math.format inside the callback:
  // return '$' + math.format(value, {notation: 'fixed', precision: 2})
}
math.format([2.1, 3, 0.016], formatCurrency}            // returns '[$2.10, $3.00, $0.02]'

See also #

print