Question About Number Format in MATLAB Command Window

% I would like to display a number as a short format. I already executed this command:
format short

% However it doesn't work for some cases. For example, I receive this result:
>> pi

ans =

    3.1416
% But I have another variable which I got from solutions of a  polynomial.("roots" command)
% If I display those solutions,
% I get long number results. It looks like this:
>> format short
>> disp(x1_sols)
 0.74613506773662727719908766254638
 0.74624784618189352426025884090749
 0.77735277675703701413872152754508
 0.82647611867148647532781596815636
  1.0679165995745538795723120147744
  1.3550488761820195655871374504513

% How can I get short form of this? 
% Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

These are numbers from the symbolic toolbox. That toolbox does not use the format tools to display numbers (though perhaps arguably it could, but that would introduce a whole new set of problms.) You can use vpa to do that.

XX = vpa(1./sym([2;3;7;11;13]))
XX =
                                0.5
 0.33333333333333333333333333333333
 0.14285714285714285714285714285714
0.090909090909090909090909090909091
0.076923076923076923076923076923077

vpa(XX,4)
ans =
    0.5
 0.3333
 0.1429
0.09091
0.07692

[ercan duzgun]

Dear John D'Errico, I see. Thank you very much.

[Walter Roberson]

Or you can use double(), which would probably be more appropriate.

[ercan duzgun]

Thank you @Walter Roberson . Your suggestion is a better solution for me.