How to pretty-print a numpy.array without scientific notation and with given precision?

Question

I\'m curious, whether there is any way to print formatted numpy.arrays, e.g., in a way similar to this:

x = 1.23456
print \'%.3f\' % x


        

Answer 1

I find that the usual float format {:9.5f} works properly -- suppressing small-value e-notations -- when displaying a list or an array using a loop. But that format sometimes fails to suppress its e-notation when a formatter has several items in a single print statement. For example:

import numpy as np
np.set_printoptions(suppress=True)
a3 = 4E-3
a4 = 4E-4
a5 = 4E-5
a6 = 4E-6
a7 = 4E-7
a8 = 4E-8
#--first, display separate numbers-----------
print('Case 3:  a3, a4, a5:             {:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5f}'.format(a3,a4,a5))
print('Case 4:  a3, a4, a5, a6:         {:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5}'.format(a3,a4,a5,a6))
print('Case 5:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7:     {:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5}{:9.5f}'.format(a3,a4,a5,a6,a7))
print('Case 6:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8: {:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5f}{:9.5}{:9.5f}'.format(a3,a4,a5,a6,a7,a8))
#---second, display a list using a loop----------
myList = [a3,a4,a5,a6,a7,a8]
print('List 6:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8: ', end='')
for x in myList: 
    print('{:9.5f}'.format(x), end='')
print()
#---third, display a numpy array using a loop------------
myArray = np.array(myList)
print('Array 6: a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8: ', end='')
for x in myArray:
    print('{:9.5f}'.format(x), end='')
print()

My results show the bug in cases 4, 5, and 6:

Case 3:  a3, a4, a5:               0.00400  0.00040  0.00004
Case 4:  a3, a4, a5, a6:           0.00400  0.00040  0.00004    4e-06
Case 5:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7:       0.00400  0.00040  0.00004    4e-06  0.00000
Case 6:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8:   0.00400  0.00040  0.00004  0.00000    4e-07  0.00000
List 6:  a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8:   0.00400  0.00040  0.00004  0.00000  0.00000  0.00000
Array 6: a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8:   0.00400  0.00040  0.00004  0.00000  0.00000  0.00000

I have no explanation for this, and therefore I always use a loop for floating output of multiple values.

Answer 2

numpy.char.mod may also be useful, depending on the details of your application e.g.:numpy.char.mod('Value=%4.2f', numpy.arange(5, 10, 0.1)) will return a string array with elements "Value=5.00", "Value=5.10" etc. (as a somewhat contrived example).

Answer 3

Was surprised to not see around method mentioned - means no messing with print options.

import numpy as np

x = np.random.random([5,5])
print(np.around(x,decimals=3))

Output:
[[0.475 0.239 0.183 0.991 0.171]
 [0.231 0.188 0.235 0.335 0.049]
 [0.87  0.212 0.219 0.9   0.3  ]
 [0.628 0.791 0.409 0.5   0.319]
 [0.614 0.84  0.812 0.4   0.307]]

Answer 4

Unutbu gave a really complete answer (they got a +1 from me too), but here is a lo-tech alternative:

>>> x=np.random.randn(5)
>>> x
array([ 0.25276524,  2.28334499, -1.88221637,  0.69949927,  1.0285625 ])
>>> ['{:.2f}'.format(i) for i in x]
['0.25', '2.28', '-1.88', '0.70', '1.03']

As a function (using the format() syntax for formatting):

def ndprint(a, format_string ='{0:.2f}'):
    print [format_string.format(v,i) for i,v in enumerate(a)]

Usage:

>>> ndprint(x)
['0.25', '2.28', '-1.88', '0.70', '1.03']

>>> ndprint(x, '{:10.4e}')
['2.5277e-01', '2.2833e+00', '-1.8822e+00', '6.9950e-01', '1.0286e+00']

>>> ndprint(x, '{:.8g}')
['0.25276524', '2.283345', '-1.8822164', '0.69949927', '1.0285625']

The index of the array is accessible in the format string:

>>> ndprint(x, 'Element[{1:d}]={0:.2f}')
['Element[0]=0.25', 'Element[1]=2.28', 'Element[2]=-1.88', 'Element[3]=0.70', 'Element[4]=1.03']

Answer 5

Years later, another one is below. But for everyday use I just

np.set_printoptions( threshold=20, edgeitems=10, linewidth=140,
    formatter = dict( float = lambda x: "%.3g" % x ))  # float arrays %.3g

---

''' printf( "... %.3g ... %.1f  ...", arg, arg ... ) for numpy arrays too

Example:
    printf( """ x: %.3g   A: %.1f   s: %s   B: %s """,
                   x,        A,        "str",  B )

If `x` and `A` are numbers, this is like `"format" % (x, A, "str", B)` in python.
If they're numpy arrays, each element is printed in its own format:
    `x`: e.g. [ 1.23 1.23e-6 ... ]  3 digits
    `A`: [ [ 1 digit after the decimal point ... ] ... ]
with the current `np.set_printoptions()`. For example, with
    np.set_printoptions( threshold=100, edgeitems=3, suppress=True )
only the edges of big `x` and `A` are printed.
`B` is printed as `str(B)`, for any `B` -- a number, a list, a numpy object ...

`printf()` tries to handle too few or too many arguments sensibly,
but this is iffy and subject to change.

How it works:
numpy has a function `np.array2string( A, "%.3g" )` (simplifying a bit).
`printf()` splits the format string, and for format / arg pairs
    format: % d e f g
    arg: try `np.asanyarray()`
-->  %s  np.array2string( arg, format )
Other formats and non-ndarray args are left alone, formatted as usual.

Notes:

`printf( ... end= file= )` are passed on to the python `print()` function.

Only formats `% [optional width . precision] d e f g` are implemented,
not `%(varname)format` .

%d truncates floats, e.g. 0.9 and -0.9 to 0; %.0f rounds, 0.9 to 1 .
%g is the same as %.6g, 6 digits.
%% is a single "%" character.

The function `sprintf()` returns a long string. For example,
    title = sprintf( "%s  m %g  n %g  X %.3g",
                    __file__, m, n, X )
    print( title )
    ...
    pl.title( title )

Module globals:
_fmt = "%.3g"  # default for extra args
_squeeze = np.squeeze  # (n,1) (1,n) -> (n,) print in 1 line not n

See also:
http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.set_printoptions.html
http://docs.python.org/2.7/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting

'''
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2891790/pretty-printing-of-numpy-array


#...............................................................................
from __future__ import division, print_function
import re
import numpy as np

__version__ = "2014-02-03 feb denis"

_splitformat = re.compile( r'''(
    %
    (?<! %% )  # not %%
    -? [ \d . ]*  # optional width.precision
    \w
    )''', re.X )
    # ... %3.0f  ... %g  ... %-10s ...
    # -> ['...' '%3.0f' '...' '%g' '...' '%-10s' '...']
    # odd len, first or last may be ""

_fmt = "%.3g"  # default for extra args
_squeeze = np.squeeze  # (n,1) (1,n) -> (n,) print in 1 line not n

#...............................................................................
def printf( format, *args, **kwargs ):
    print( sprintf( format, *args ), **kwargs )  # end= file=

printf.__doc__ = __doc__


def sprintf( format, *args ):
    """ sprintf( "text %.3g text %4.1f ... %s ... ", numpy arrays or ... )
        %[defg] array -> np.array2string( formatter= )
    """
    args = list(args)
    if not isinstance( format, basestring ):
        args = [format] + args
        format = ""

    tf = _splitformat.split( format )  # [ text %e text %f ... ]
    nfmt = len(tf) // 2
    nargs = len(args)
    if nargs < nfmt:
        args += (nfmt - nargs) * ["?arg?"]
    elif nargs > nfmt:
        tf += (nargs - nfmt) * [_fmt, " "]  # default _fmt

    for j, arg in enumerate( args ):
        fmt = tf[ 2*j + 1 ]
        if arg is None \
        or isinstance( arg, basestring ) \
        or (hasattr( arg, "__iter__" ) and len(arg) == 0):
            tf[ 2*j + 1 ] = "%s"  # %f -> %s, not error
            continue
        args[j], isarray = _tonumpyarray(arg)
        if isarray  and fmt[-1] in "defgEFG":
            tf[ 2*j + 1 ] = "%s"
            fmtfunc = (lambda x: fmt % x)
            formatter = dict( float_kind=fmtfunc, int=fmtfunc )
            args[j] = np.array2string( args[j], formatter=formatter )
    try:
        return "".join(tf) % tuple(args)
    except TypeError:  # shouldn't happen
        print( "error: tf %s  types %s" % (tf, map( type, args )))
        raise


def _tonumpyarray( a ):
    """ a, isarray = _tonumpyarray( a )
        ->  scalar, False
            np.asanyarray(a), float or int
            a, False
    """
    a = getattr( a, "value", a )  # cvxpy
    if np.isscalar(a):
        return a, False
    if hasattr( a, "__iter__" )  and len(a) == 0:
        return a, False
    try:
        # map .value ?
        a = np.asanyarray( a )
    except ValueError:
        return a, False
    if hasattr( a, "dtype" )  and a.dtype.kind in "fi":  # complex ?
        if callable( _squeeze ):
            a = _squeeze( a )  # np.squeeze
        return a, True
    else:
        return a, False


#...............................................................................
if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys

    n = 5
    seed = 0
        # run this.py n= ...  in sh or ipython
    for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
        exec( arg )
    np.set_printoptions( 1, threshold=4, edgeitems=2, linewidth=80, suppress=True )
    np.random.seed(seed)

    A = np.random.exponential( size=(n,n) ) ** 10
    x = A[0]

    printf( "x: %.3g  \nA: %.1f  \ns: %s  \nB: %s ",
                x,         A,         "str",   A )
    printf( "x %%d: %d", x )
    printf( "x %%.0f: %.0f", x )
    printf( "x %%.1e: %.1e", x )
    printf( "x %%g: %g", x )
    printf( "x %%s uses np printoptions: %s", x )

    printf( "x with default _fmt: ", x )
    printf( "no args" )
    printf( "too few args: %g %g", x )
    printf( x )
    printf( x, x )
    printf( None )
    printf( "[]:", [] )
    printf( "[3]:", [3] )
    printf( np.array( [] ))
    printf( [[]] )  # squeeze

Answer 6

The numpy arrays have the method round(precision) which return a new numpy array with elements rounded accordingly.

import numpy as np

x = np.random.random([5,5])
print(x.round(3))