Mark Dickinson <dicki...@gmail.com> added the comment:
FTR, here "fixed point" refers to the output representation (a decimal string) rather than the input (a floating-point binary value). The output of %f gives a *fixed* number of places after the decimal point (6 by default). Contrast with %e, which gives a floating-point output representation. But yes, there are probably less confusing ways to word this. Did you have a particular alternative wording in mind? Here's the behaviour of %f for different scale values: note that the output always has the same number of digits after the point, but the number of significant digits varies. >>> "%f" % math.pi '3.141593' >>> "%f" % (100.0 * math.pi) '314.159265' >>> "%f" % (0.01 * math.pi) '0.031416' And here's %e. Now it's the other way around: the number of significant digits stays the same, but the exponent changes to reflect the magnitude. >>> "%e" % math.pi '3.141593e+00' >>> "%e" % (100 * math.pi) '3.141593e+02' >>> "%e" % (0.01 * math.pi) '3.141593e-02' ---------- nosy: +mark.dickinson _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue34273> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
