"format short f"

[Dirk Laurie]

I know that Matlab is like that too, but I find the insistence on 
significant figures at all times annoying.

Example:

  A=hilb(8)
A =
 
  1.0000  0.5000  0.3333  0.2500  0.2000  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250
  0.5000  0.3333  0.2500  0.2000  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111
  0.3333  0.2500  0.2000  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000
  0.2500  0.2000  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000  0.0909
  0.2000  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000  0.0909  0.0833
  0.1667  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000  0.0909  0.0833  0.0769
  0.1429  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000  0.0909  0.0833  0.0769  0.0714
  0.1250  0.1111  0.1000  0.0909  0.0833  0.0769  0.0714  0.0667
 
   A*inv(A)
ans =
 
 Columns 1 through 6:
 
    1.00e+00    3.66e-08   -4.47e-08   -1.79e-07    5.51e-07   -7.00e-07
    6.23e-09    1.00e+00   -3.91e-08   -1.57e-07    4.71e-07   -5.75e-07
    5.37e-09    2.64e-08    1.00e-00   -1.40e-07    4.09e-07   -5.29e-07
    4.72e-09    2.31e-08   -2.66e-08    1.00e-00    3.62e-07   -4.72e-07
    4.20e-09    2.07e-08   -2.61e-08   -1.03e-07    1.00e+00   -4.01e-07
    3.80e-09    1.86e-08   -2.08e-08   -9.92e-08    2.82e-07    1.00e-00
    3.46e-09    1.70e-08   -2.18e-08   -7.54e-08    2.45e-07   -2.92e-07
    3.18e-09    1.55e-08   -1.87e-08   -8.46e-08    2.58e-07   -3.07e-07
 
 Columns 7 and 8:
 
    5.51e-07   -3.02e-07
    4.84e-07   -2.52e-07
    4.29e-07   -2.14e-07
    4.10e-07   -1.98e-07
    3.03e-07   -1.72e-07
    3.17e-07   -1.65e-07
    1.00e+00   -1.38e-07
    2.59e-07    1.00e-00
 
  I'd like something that allows me to print this last item as
ans =
 
   1.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000
   0.0000   1.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000
  -0.0000  -0.0000   1.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000
  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000   1.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000
   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   1.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000
  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000   1.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000
   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   0.0000   1.0000   0.0000
  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000  -0.0000   1.0000        

The most flexible candidate would be:

  format(FORMATSTRING)

where FORMATSTRING is a sprintf-like string.  E.g. I get the above by
specifying   format('%9.4f')   (I didn't, but I would like to.)

Dirk



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