Display scientific notation as floating point number in Python

Scientific notation is the standard way of representing numbers in science and mathematics.

However, in some cases it may be more convenient to display these numbers in traditional decimal format (also known as floating point format). Python provides several methods for converting scientific notation to floating point format.

Floating point representation of scientific notation in Python

One way to display scientific notation as floating point numbers in Python is to use the float() function. The float() function accepts a string as input and returns a floating point number. To convert a number in scientific notation to floating point using the float() function, you simply pass the number to the function as a string.

The different methods for scientific notation in Python are -

• Floating method

• Format method

• g format method

Floating method

For example, suppose you have the following number in scientific notation: 1.234e 6. To convert it to floating point format you can use float() function as shown below −

>>> number_in_scientific_notation = "1.234e+6"
>>> float(number_in_scientific_notation)
1234000.0

Format method

Another way to display scientific notation as floating point numbers in Python is to use the format() method. The format() method allows you to specify the number of decimal places to display in floating point format. To use the format() method to convert a number in scientific notation to a floating point number, you need to first use the float() function to convert the scientific notation to a floating point number, and then use the format() method to specify the number of decimal places.

For example, suppose you have a number represented in scientific notation: 1.234e 6. To convert it to floating point format preserving two decimal places, you can use the following code −

>>> number_in_scientific_notation = "1.234e+6"
>>> number_as_float = float(number_in_scientific_notation)
>>> "{:.2f}".format(number_as_float)
"1234000.00"

In this code, the float() function converts the number in scientific notation to floating point format, and the format() method formats the floating point number to two decimal places.

g format

The "g" format specifier in Python automatically chooses between fixed and scientific notation based on the number. It will choose the representation that uses the fewest number of digits to represent the number.

This is an example−

x = 0.0000034567 print(f"The number is {x:g}") 

y = 10000000.0
print(f"The number is {y:g}")

In this example, the "g" format specifier is used to print the number y. Since y is a large number, the output will be in fixed notation

Use the g format specifier to automatically choose between fixed and scientific notation based on numbers -

x = 123456.789 print("{:.3g}".format(x)) 

Output

1.23e+05 

Here are more examples of using Python to represent floating point numbers in scientific notation:

Step 1 − Convert floating point number to scientific notation using e format specifier −

x = 0.0000234 print("{:.2e}".format(x)) 

Output

2.34e-05 

Step 2 - Use the f format specifier to specify the number of decimal places and the e format specifier to display the result in scientific notation -

x = 1234.56789 print("{:.2f}e{:+03d}".format(x, -4))

Output

1234.57e-04  

Step 3 - Use the g format specifier to automatically choose between fixed and scientific notation based on numbers -

x = 123456.789 print("{:.3g}".format(x)) 

Output

1.23e+05  

Please note that the precision and format can be adjusted to suit your needs.

in conclusion

In summary, there are multiple ways to convert and display scientific notation to floating point in Python. Using the float() function and format() method are two common ways to achieve this.

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