ftocv#

Purpose#

Converts a matrix containing floating point numbers into a matrix containing the decimal character representation of each element.

Format#

x_cv = ftocv(x, field, prec)#

Parameters:

x (NxK matrix) – numeric data to be converted
field (scalar) – minimum field width.
prec (scalar) – the numbers created will have prec places after the decimal point.

Returns:

x_cv (NxK character matrix) – contains the decimal character equivalent of the corresponding elements in x in the format defined by field and prec.

Examples#

Basic examples#

// Field width for 7 characters (including '.'). Display 5 characters after decimal point
x = ftocv(1.23456789, 7, 5);

// Print character vector
print $x;

The code above will return the following output:

1.23457

x = ftocv(1.23456789, 4, 2);
print $x;

The code above will return the following output:

1.23

x = ftocv(1.23456789, 6, 3);
print $x;

The code above will return the following output:

01.235

Combining text with numbers#

y = { 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 };

/*
** Combine 'beta' with the vector of numbers in 'y'
** Use 2 characters for each number with 0 after the decimal point
*/
x = 0 $+ "beta" $+ ftocv(y, 2, 0);

/*
** Since the output is a character vector the dollar
** sign ($) must be used in front of the variable for printing
*/
print $x;

results in the following output:

beta06
beta07
beta08
beta09
beta10

Notice that the 0 $+ above was necessary to force the type of the result to matrix because the string constant "beta" would be of type string. The left operand in an expression containing a $+ operator controls the type of the result.

Remarks#

To convert numbers to strings, or string arrays, use ntos() instead.
Character vectors, as returned by ftocv(), can only hold 8 characters. Therefore, the field and prec inputs may not be greater than 8.
If a number is narrower than field, it will be padded on the left with zeros.
If $prec = 0$, the decimal point will be suppressed.