Avoid trailing zeroes in printf()

Question

I keep stumbling on the format specifiers for the printf() family of functions. What I want is to be able to print a double (or float) with a maximum given number of digits

Answer 1

I found problems in some of the solutions posted. I put this together based on answers above. It seems to work for me.

int doubleEquals(double i, double j) {
    return (fabs(i - j) < 0.000001);
}

void printTruncatedDouble(double dd, int max_len) {
    char str[50];
    int match = 0;
    for ( int ii = 0; ii < max_len; ii++ ) {
        if (doubleEquals(dd * pow(10,ii), floor(dd * pow(10,ii)))) {
            sprintf (str,"%f", round(dd*pow(10,ii))/pow(10,ii));
            match = 1;
            break;
        }
    }
    if ( match != 1 ) {
        sprintf (str,"%f", round(dd*pow(10,max_len))/pow(10,max_len));
    }
    char *pp;
    int count;
    pp = strchr (str,'.');
    if (pp != NULL) {
        count = max_len;
        while (count >= 0) {
             count--;
             if (*pp == '\0')
                 break;
             pp++;
        }
        *pp-- = '\0';
        while (*pp == '0')
            *pp-- = '\0';
        if (*pp == '.') {
            *pp = '\0';
        }
    }
    printf ("%s\n", str);
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.999, 2 ); // prints -2
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.006, 2 ); // prints -1.01
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.005, 2 ); // prints -1
    printf("\n");
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.005, 2 ); // prints 1 (should be 1.01?)
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.006, 2 ); // prints 1.01
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.999, 2 ); // prints 2
    printf("\n");
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.999, 3 ); // prints -1.999
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.001, 3 ); // prints -1.001
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.0005, 3 ); // prints -1.001 (shound be -1?)
    printTruncatedDouble( -1.0004, 3 ); // prints -1
    printf("\n");
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.0004, 3 ); // prints 1
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.0005, 3 ); // prints 1.001
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.001, 3 ); // prints 1.001
    printTruncatedDouble( 1.999, 3 ); // prints 1.999
    printf("\n");
    exit(0);
}

Answer 2

A simple solution but it gets the job done, assigns a known length and precision and avoids the chance of going exponential format (which is a risk when you use %g):

// Since we are only interested in 3 decimal places, this function
// can avoid any potential miniscule floating point differences
// which can return false when using "=="
int DoubleEquals(double i, double j)
{
    return (fabs(i - j) < 0.000001);
}

void PrintMaxThreeDecimal(double d)
{
    if (DoubleEquals(d, floor(d)))
        printf("%.0f", d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 10, floor(d * 10)))
        printf("%.1f", d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 100, floor(d* 100)))
        printf("%.2f", d);
    else
        printf("%.3f", d);
}

Add or remove "elses" if you want a max of 2 decimals; 4 decimals; etc.

For example if you wanted 2 decimals:

void PrintMaxTwoDecimal(double d)
{
    if (DoubleEquals(d, floor(d)))
        printf("%.0f", d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 10, floor(d * 10)))
        printf("%.1f", d);
    else
        printf("%.2f", d);
}

If you want to specify the minimum width to keep fields aligned, increment as necessary, for example:

void PrintAlignedMaxThreeDecimal(double d)
{
    if (DoubleEquals(d, floor(d)))
        printf("%7.0f", d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 10, floor(d * 10)))
        printf("%9.1f", d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 100, floor(d* 100)))
        printf("%10.2f", d);
    else
        printf("%11.3f", d);
}

You could also convert that to a function where you pass the desired width of the field:

void PrintAlignedWidthMaxThreeDecimal(int w, double d)
{
    if (DoubleEquals(d, floor(d)))
        printf("%*.0f", w-4, d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 10, floor(d * 10)))
        printf("%*.1f", w-2, d);
    else if (DoubleEquals(d * 100, floor(d* 100)))
        printf("%*.2f", w-1, d);
    else
        printf("%*.3f", w, d);
}

Answer 3

Hit the same issue, double precision is 15 decimal, and float precision is 6 decimal, so I wrote to 2 functions for them separately

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <string>
#include <string.h>

std::string doublecompactstring(double d)
{
    char buf[128] = {0};
    if (isnan(d))
        return "NAN";
    sprintf(buf, "%.15f", d);
    // try to remove the trailing zeros
    size_t ccLen = strlen(buf);
    for(int i=(int)(ccLen -1);i>=0;i--)
    {
        if (buf[i] == '0')
            buf[i] = '\0';
        else
            break;
    }

    return buf;
}

std::string floatcompactstring(float d)
{
    char buf[128] = {0};
    if (isnan(d))
        return "NAN";
    sprintf(buf, "%.6f", d);
    // try to remove the trailing zeros
    size_t ccLen = strlen(buf);
    for(int i=(int)(ccLen -1);i>=0;i--)
    {
        if (buf[i] == '0')
            buf[i] = '\0';
        else
            break;
    }

    return buf;
}

int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
{
    double a = 0.000000000000001;
    float  b = 0.000001f;

    printf("a: %s\n", doublecompactstring(a).c_str());
    printf("b: %s\n", floatcompactstring(b).c_str());
    return 0;
}

output is

a: 0.000000000000001
b: 0.000001

Answer 4

Slight variation on above:

1. Eliminates period for case (10000.0).
2. Breaks after first period is processed.

Code here:

void EliminateTrailingFloatZeros(char *iValue)
{
  char *p = 0;
  for(p=iValue; *p; ++p) {
    if('.' == *p) {
      while(*++p);
      while('0'==*--p) *p = '\0';
      if(*p == '.') *p = '\0';
      break;
    }
  }
}

It still has potential for overflow, so be careful ;P

Answer 5

I like the answer of R. slightly tweaked:

float f = 1234.56789;
printf("%d.%.0f", f, 1000*(f-(int)f));

'1000' determines the precision.

Power to the 0.5 rounding.

EDIT

Ok, this answer was edited a few times and I lost track what I was thinking a few years back (and originally it did not fill all the criteria). So here is a new version (that fills all criteria and handles negative numbers correctly):

double f = 1234.05678900;
char s[100]; 
int decimals = 10;

sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
printf("10 decimals: %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

And the test cases:

#import <stdio.h>
#import <stdlib.h>
#import <math.h>

int main(void){

    double f = 1234.05678900;
    char s[100];
    int decimals;

    decimals = 10;
    sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
    printf("10 decimals: %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

    decimals = 3;
    sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
    printf(" 3 decimals: %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

    f = -f;
    decimals = 10;
    sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
    printf(" negative 10: %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

    decimals = 3;
    sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
    printf(" negative  3: %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

    decimals = 2;
    f = 1.012;
    sprintf(s,"%.*g", decimals, ((int)(pow(10, decimals)*(fabs(f) - abs((int)f)) +0.5))/pow(10,decimals));
    printf(" additional : %d%s\n", (int)f, s+1);

    return 0;
}

And the output of the tests:

 10 decimals: 1234.056789
  3 decimals: 1234.057
 negative 10: -1234.056789
 negative  3: -1234.057
 additional : 1.01

Now, all criteria are met:

• maximum number of decimals behind the zero is fixed
• trailing zeros are removed
• it does it mathematically right (right?)
• works (now) also when first decimal is zero

Unfortunately this answer is a two-liner as sprintf does not return the string.

Answer 6

To get rid of the trailing zeros, you should use the "%g" format:

float num = 1.33;
printf("%g", num); //output: 1.33

After the question was clarified a bit, that suppressing zeros is not the only thing that was asked, but limiting the output to three decimal places was required as well. I think that can't be done with sprintf format strings alone. As Pax Diablo pointed out, string manipulation would be required.