CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonformatdecimalrepr
prat0318
prat0318

Reputation: 611

Best way to print decimal number to maximum precision without trailing zeroes in Python

Example to show my usecase:

from __future__ import division
a = 215 / 4
print a # Case 1. Should print 53.75

a = 215 / 3
print a # Case 2. Should print 71.6666666666666714 i.e. decimal to 16 precision.

Possible solutions which don't work:

print str(a) # Case 2 gets printed with only 12 precision (needed 16)

print repr(a) # Case 2 gets printed as 71.66666666666667 (precision 14, needed 16)

print '{0:.16f}'.format(a) # Case 1 gets printed with trailing zeroes

print '{0:.16g}'.format(a) # Decimal precision is 14, needed 16.

What would be the best pythonic solution to this?

Edit: If precision of 16 is a limitation of float division, what would be the pythonic way to get 8 decimals place precision. Is there a better soln. than '{0:.8f}'.format(a).rstrip('0')?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1229

Answers (1)

Justin Tokarchuk
Justin Tokarchuk

Reputation: 159

I believe getcontext() will be your friend here, in the decimal library.

This allows you to set precision and manipulate significant figure outcomes.

https://docs.python.org/2/library/decimal.html

Upvotes: 1

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