I have a number, for example 1.128347132904321674821 that I would like to show as only two decimal places when output to screen (or written to a file). How does one do that?
x <- 1.128347132904321674821
EDIT:
The use of:
options(digits=2)
Has been suggested as a possible answer. Is there a way to specify this within a script for one-time use? When I add it to my script it doesn't seem to do anything different and I'm not interested in a lot of re-typing to format each number (I'm automating a very large report).
—
Answer: round(x, digits=2)
Best Answer
Background: Some answers suggested on this page (e.g.,
signif
,options(digits=...)
) do not guarantee that a certain number of decimals are displayed for an arbitrary number. I presume this is a design feature in R whereby good scientific practice involves showing a certain number of digits based on principles of "significant figures". However, in many domains (e.g., APA style, business reports) formatting requirements dictate that a certain number of decimal places are displayed. This is often done for consistency and standardisation purposes rather than being concerned with significant figures.Solution:
The following code shows exactly two decimal places for the number
x
.For example:
A more general function is as follows where
x
is the number andk
is the number of decimals to show.trimws
removes any leading white space which can be useful if you have a vector of numbers.E.g.,