Format Number of Decimal Places in R

Last Updated : 23 May, 2021

In this article we are going to discuss how to format numbers up to n decimal places in the R programming language. In R language, the decimal number is represented by . symbol

Method 1: Format() function

Format() function can be used to format decimal values by rounding them and displaying only a specific number of elements after decimal.

Syntax:

format(round(value, n), nsmall = n)

Parameters:

It can take two parameters.

round(value,n) function : which will specify the number of decimal places to be selected. It will take input number along with integer value that select decimal places of the given number

nsmall function : which will specify the number of decimal places to be selected.It will take input number along with integer value that select decimal places of the given number

Result:

Formatted Decimal number.

Example:

R

# define an variable and initialize 
# to decimal number 
a=12.4556785 
  
# display decimal places upto 3 
print(format(round(a, 3), nsmall = 3)) 
  
# display decimal places upto 4 
print(format(round(a, 4), nsmall = 4)) 
   
# display decimal places upto 0 
print(format(round(a, 0), nsmall = 0)) 
  
# display decimal places upto 1 
print(format(round(a, 1), nsmall = 1)) 

Output:

Example 2:

R

# define a vector with decimal 
# elements  
a=c(12.4556785,1.345,6.789,7.890) 
  
# display decimal places upto 3 
for (i in a){ 
print(format(round(i, 3), nsmall = 3)) 
} 

Output:

Method 2: Using sprintf() function

Using sprintf() function, we can specify the format of the decimal places along with the variable

Syntax: sprintf(variable, fmt = ‘%.nf’)

Parameters:

variable – input decimal value

fmt stands for format which will take parameter “.%nf” where n specifies number of decimal places to be selected.

Result:

formatted decimal number

Example 1:

R

# decimal number 
a=14.6788 
   
# format upto 4 places 
print( sprintf(a, fmt = '%.4f')  ) 
  
# format upto 8 places 
print( sprintf(a, fmt = '%.8f')  ) 
  
# format upto 1 place 
print( sprintf(a, fmt = '%.1f')  ) 
  
# format upto 0 places 
print( sprintf(a, fmt = '%.0f')  ) 

Output:

Example 2:

R

# define a vector with decimal elements  
a=c(12.4556785,1.345,6.789,7.89089) 
  
# display decimal places upto 4 
for (i in a){ 
print( sprintf(i, fmt = '%.4f')  ) 
} 
print("---------------------") 
  
# display decimal places upto 1 
for (i in a){ 
print( sprintf(i, fmt = '%.1f')  ) 
} 
print("---------------------") 
  
# display decimal places upto 2 
for (i in a){ 
print( sprintf(i, fmt = '%.2f')  ) 
} 
print("---------------------") 
  
# display decimal places upto 0 
for (i in a){ 
print( sprintf(i, fmt = '%.0f')  ) 
} 

Output:

Method 3: Using options() function

This function is used to return the digits after the decimal.

Syntax:

options(digits = n)

Where digits is the number of digits to be returned along with number before decimal point.

Example:

a=1.24325454666

options(digits=4)

It will return 1.243

Example 1:

R

# decimal number 
a=14.67885350938953809580 
  
# format upto 4 places 
options(digits=4)   
print(a) 
  
# format upto 8 places 
options(digits=8)   
print(a) 
  
# format upto 3 place 
options(digits=3)   
print(a) 

Output:

Example 2:

R

# define a vector with decimal elements  
a=c(12.4556785,1.345,6.789,7.89089) 
  
# display decimal places upto 4 
options(digits=4) 
for (i in a){ 
print( i  ) 
} 
print("---------------------") 
  
# display decimal places upto 6 
options(digits=6) 
for (i in a){ 
print( i  ) 
} 
print("---------------------") 
  
# display decimal places upto 2 
options(digits=2) 
for (i in a){ 
print( i  ) 
} 