format switches between different display formats:
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Command Result Example
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format short 5 digit scaled fixed point 3.1416
format long 15 digit scaled fixed point 3.14159265358979
format short e 5 digit floating-point 3.1416e+00
format long e 16 digit floating-point 3.141592653589793e+00
format hex Hexadecimal 400921fb54442d18
format bank Fixed dollars and cents 3.14
format rat Ratio of small integers 355/113
format + +,-, blank +
format compact Suppresses excess line
feeds and results in a
slightly more compact dis
play. Does not affect the
numeric format.
format loose Reverts to the more open
display. Does not affect
the numeric format.
format Returns to the default for
mats, short and loose.
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By default, MATLAB displays numbers in a short format with five decimal digits.
format + displays +, -, and blank characters for positive, negative, and zero elements. The spy function uses graphics to display essentially the same information more effectively. format hex displays the hexadecimal representation of the binary double-precision number for each element. format rat uses a continued fraction algorithm to approximate floating-point values by ratios of small integers. See rat.m for the complete code in an M-file.
fprintf, num2str, rat, sprintf, spy
(c) Copyright 1994 by The MathWorks, Inc.