Force R Not to Use Exponential Notation (E. G. E+10)?
Can I Force R to Use Regular Numbers Instead of Using the E+10-Like Notation? I Have: 1.810032E+09 # and 4 Within the Same Vector and Want to See: 1810032000 #...
Can I force R to use regular numbers instead of using the e+10-like notation? I have:
1.810032e+09
# and
4
within the same vector and want to see:
1810032000
# and
4
I am creating output for an old fashioned program and I have to write a text file using cat.
That works fine so far but I simply can't use the e+10 notation there.
This is a bit of a grey area. You need to recall that R will always invoke a print method, and these print methods listen to some options. Including 'scipen' -- a penalty for scientific display. From help(options):
‘scipen’: integer. A penalty to be applied when deciding to print numeric values in fixed or exponential notation. Positive values bias towards fixed and negative towards scientific notation: fixed notation will be preferred unless it is more than ‘scipen’ digits wider.
Example:
R> ran2 <- c(1.810032e+09, 4)
R> options("scipen"=-100, "digits"=4)
R> ran2
[1] 1.81e+09 4.00e+00
R> options("scipen"=100, "digits"=4)
R> ran2
[1] 1810032000 4
That said, I still find it fudgeworthy. The most direct way is to use sprintf() with explicit width e.g. sprintf("%.5f", ran2).
It can be achieved by disabling scientific notation in R.
options(scipen = 999)
My favorite answer:
format(1810032000, scientific = FALSE)
# [1] "1810032000"
This gives what you want without having to muck about in R settings.
Note that it returns a character string rather than a number object
Put options(scipen = 999) in your .Rprofile file so it gets auto-executed by default. (Do not rely on doing it manually.)
(This is saying something different to other answers: how?
- This keeps things sane when you thunk between multiple projects, multiple languages on a daily or monthly basis. Remembering to type in your per-project settings is error-prone and not scalable. You can have a global ~/.Rprofile or per-project .Rprofile. Or both, with the latter overriding the former.
- Keeping all your config in a project-wide or global .Rprofile auto-executes it. This is useful for e.g. default package loads, data.table configuration, environment etc. Again, that config can run to a page of settings, and there's zero chance you'll remember those and their syntax and type them in
David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.
