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DisplayFormatOptions

Output display format in Command Window

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Description

You can use the format function to return information about the current display format in the Command Window. That information is stored in a DisplayFormatOptions object. The object has two properties: NumericFormat stores the numeric display format, and LineSpacing stores the line spacing display format. You can also call format with a DisplayFormatOptions object as the input argument to restore the display settings saved in that object.

Creation

Create a DisplayFormatOptions object by calling the format function with an output argument.

Properties

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Numeric display format, specified as one of these options.

Style

Result

Example

short

Short, fixed-decimal format with 4 digits after the decimal point. This is the default numeric setting.

3.1416

long

Long, fixed-decimal format with 15 digits after the decimal point for double values, and 7 digits after the decimal point for single values.

3.141592653589793

shortE

Short scientific notation with 4 digits after the decimal point.

3.1416e+00

longE

Long scientific notation with 15 digits after the decimal point for double values, and 7 digits after the decimal point for single values.

3.141592653589793e+00

shortG

Short, fixed-decimal format or scientific notation, whichever is more compact, with a total of 5 digits.

3.1416

longG

Long, fixed-decimal format or scientific notation, whichever is more compact, with a total of 15 digits for double values, and 7 digits for single values.

3.14159265358979

shortEng

Short engineering notation (exponent is a multiple of 3) with 4 digits after the decimal point.

3.1416e+000

longEng

Long engineering notation (exponent is a multiple of 3) with 15 significant digits.

3.14159265358979e+000

+

Positive/Negative format with +, -, and blank characters displayed for positive, negative, and zero elements.

+

bank

Currency format with 2 digits after the decimal point.

3.14

hex

Hexadecimal representation of a binary double-precision number.

400921fb54442d18

rational

Ratio of small integers.

355/113

Line spacing display format, specified as compact or loose.

Style

Result

Example

compact

Suppress excess blank lines to show more output on a single screen.

theta = pi/2
theta =
  1.5708

loose

Add blank lines to make output more readable. This is the default setting for line spacing.

theta = pi/2

theta =

  1.5708

Examples

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Open Live Script

Since R2021a

Get the current display format.

fmt = format
fmt = 
  DisplayFormatOptions with properties:

    NumericFormat: "short"
      LineSpacing: "loose"
Open Live Script

Since R2021a

Save the current display format and restore it at a later time.

Set the numeric display to shortE and display a 2-by-2 matrix of numeric values.

format shortE
m = [9638573934 37467; 236 574638295]
m = 2×2

   9.6386e+09   3.7467e+04
   2.3600e+02   5.7464e+08

Save the current display format in oldFmt and change the numeric format to longE.

oldFmt = format("longE")
oldFmt = 
  DisplayFormatOptions with properties:

    NumericFormat: "shortE"
      LineSpacing: "loose"

Confirm that the numeric format is now long, scientific notation by redisplaying matrix m.

m
m = 2×2

     9.638573934000000e+09     3.746700000000000e+04
     2.360000000000000e+02     5.746382950000000e+08

Restore the format to its previous state. Redisplay m to confirm that the numeric format is now short, scientific format.

format(oldFmt)
m
m = 2×2

   9.6386e+09   3.7467e+04
   2.3600e+02   5.7464e+08

Version History

Introduced in R2021a

See Also