With numeric values in a vector, we can perform formatting so that the input values are rendered into scientific notation within the output character vector. The following major options are available:
decimals: choice of the number of decimal places, option to drop trailing zeros, and a choice of the decimal symbol
scaling: we can choose to scale targeted values by a multiplier value
pattern: option to use a text pattern for decoration of the formatted values
locale-based formatting: providing a locale ID will result in formatting specific to the chosen locale
Usage
vec_fmt_scientific(
x,
decimals = 2,
drop_trailing_zeros = FALSE,
scale_by = 1,
pattern = "{x}",
sep_mark = ",",
dec_mark = ".",
force_sign = FALSE,
locale = NULL,
output = c("auto", "plain", "html", "latex", "rtf", "word")
)
Arguments
- x
A numeric vector.
- decimals
An option to specify the exact number of decimal places to use. The default number of decimal places is
2
.- drop_trailing_zeros
A logical value that allows for removal of trailing zeros (those redundant zeros after the decimal mark).
- scale_by
A value to scale the input. The default is
1.0
. All numeric values will be multiplied by this value first before undergoing formatting.- pattern
A formatting pattern that allows for decoration of the formatted value. The value itself is represented by
{x}
and all other characters are taken to be string literals.- sep_mark
The mark to use as a separator between groups of digits (e.g., using
sep_mark = ","
with1000
would result in a formatted value of1,000
).- dec_mark
The character to use as a decimal mark (e.g., using
dec_mark = ","
with0.152
would result in a formatted value of0,152
).- force_sign
Should the positive sign be shown for positive values (effectively showing a sign for all values except zero)? If so, use
TRUE
for this option. The default isFALSE
, where only negative numbers will display a minus sign.- locale
An optional locale ID that can be used for formatting the value according the locale's rules. Examples include
"en"
for English (United States) and"fr"
for French (France). The use of a valid locale ID will override any values provided insep_mark
anddec_mark
. We can use theinfo_locales()
function as a useful reference for all of the locales that are supported.- output
The output style of the resulting character vector. This can either be
"auto"
(the default),"plain"
,"html"
,"latex"
,"rtf"
, or"word"
. In knitr rendering (i.e., Quarto or R Markdown), the"auto"
option will choose the correctoutput
value
Examples
Let's create a numeric vector for the next few examples:
num_vals <- c(3.24e-4, 8.65, 1362902.2, -59027.3, NA)
Using vec_fmt_scientific()
with the default options will create a character
vector with values in scientific notation. Any NA
values remain as NA
values. The rendering context will be autodetected unless specified in the
output
argument (here, it is of the "plain"
output type).
vec_fmt_scientific(num_vals)
We can change the number of decimal places with the decimals
option:
vec_fmt_scientific(num_vals, decimals = 1)
If we are formatting for a different locale, we could supply the locale ID and gt will handle any locale-specific formatting options:
vec_fmt_scientific(num_vals, locale = "es")
Should you need to have positive and negative signs on each of the output
values, use force_sign = TRUE
:
vec_fmt_scientific(num_vals, force_sign = TRUE)
As a last example, one can wrap the values in a pattern with the pattern
argument. Note here that NA
values won't have the pattern applied.
vec_fmt_scientific(num_vals, pattern = "[{x}]")
See also
Other vector formatting functions:
vec_fmt_bytes()
,
vec_fmt_currency()
,
vec_fmt_datetime()
,
vec_fmt_date()
,
vec_fmt_duration()
,
vec_fmt_engineering()
,
vec_fmt_fraction()
,
vec_fmt_integer()
,
vec_fmt_markdown()
,
vec_fmt_number()
,
vec_fmt_partsper()
,
vec_fmt_percent()
,
vec_fmt_roman()
,
vec_fmt_time()