Number Formatting

Matlab will often display numbers with a given number of decimals based on "formatting" options as opposed to their actual value.

Formatting Numbers

Note: While I will differentiate between integers and doubles, Matlab will treat most numbers (unless it is explicitly told otherwise) as doubles.

This is because, from a scientific viewpoint, doubles are the most accurate representation the computer can (typically) use. We will talk about the limits of precision on a computer at another time.

Matlab usually only prints a very small number of the digits after the decimal place... This is because to us,

	
	  5.123123123548238
	
      

is the same as:

	
	  5.123
	
      

You can change this behavior by using the "format" command

	
>> format long
>> a

a =

   5.12312312354824

>> format short
>> a

a =

    5.1231
	
      


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