FloatToString (Float function)

Convert a number to a string (Float class)

The FloatToString intrinsic function converts a floating point number to a string with a specific length and number of decimal places.

Syntax

%string = float:FloatToString[( [Length= number], [DP= number])]

Syntax terms

%string	A string variable to receive the converted value of the method object number.
float	The (input) method object float value that will be converted to the output %string.
Length	This is an optional, but nameRequired, parameter which specifies the output string length. The number value must be between 1 and 255, and it defaults to the minimum length required to represent the number.
DP	This is an optional, but nameRequired, parameter which specifies the number of decimal places in the result. The number value defaults to 0, must be between 0 and 75, and must be less than any Length parameter specified.

Usage notes

• If the target length and number of decimal places would result in leading non-zero digits being lost, the request is canceled. For example, specifying the following results in request cancellation:

  13.1415926:FloatToString(length=6, dp=4)

• FloatToString neatly displays non-integer numeric values. Round is not a good way of doing this, since Round returns a Float value and strips trailing 0s when printing the value.
• FloatToString currently does not support E format (9.9E72) output.
• A DP value of 0 has a special result: no decimal point. There is no way to get a trailing decimal point without any digits after it unless you explicitly append a point character ('.') to a result for which DP=0 is specified, as is shown in the last of the PrintText statements in the example below, you can get a value with a leading decimal point and no digit before it.
• To produce the specified length or number of decimal places in the result, FloatToString uses truncation, not rounding, of the input, as you can see in the last two of the PrintText statements in the example below.
• FloatToString is available as of "Sirius Mods" Version 7.6.

Examples

1. The following program demonstrates the FloatToString method.

   begin printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(dp=0)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(dp=1)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(dp=5)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(length=10)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(length=10, dp=1)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(length=10, dp=4)} printText {~} = {0.1415926:floatToString(length=5, dp=4)} end

   The result is:

   0.1415926:floatToString = 0 0.1415926:floatToString(dp=0) = 0 0.1415926:floatToString(dp=1) = 0.1 0.1415926:floatToString(dp=5) = 0.14159 0.1415926:floatToString(length=10) = 0 0.1415926:floatToString(length=10, dp=1) = 0.1 0.1415926:floatToString(length=10, dp=4) = 0.1415 0.1415926:floatToString(length=5, dp=4) = .1415

See also

Float class String class Unicode class	List of Float methods List of String methods List of Unicode methods List of Intrinsic methods	Float methods syntax String methods syntax Unicode methods syntax
Notation conventions for methods