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Incorrect superscript formatting for scientific notation #90

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dpeterson71 opened this issue Jan 15, 2018 · 7 comments
Closed

Incorrect superscript formatting for scientific notation #90

dpeterson71 opened this issue Jan 15, 2018 · 7 comments

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@dpeterson71
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The pretty-printing of superscripts is not correct for numbers printed in scientific notation. For example, the number 1.23E4 is printed as 1.23e^4 which reads as 1.23 * e^4. It really should be 1.23 x 10^4, (which actually occupies more characters than the default print method) but at the very least the "e" should be "E" so as not to be confused with the natural exponent.
@krlmlr
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krlmlr commented Jan 16, 2018

I'd argue that the lower-case e is easier to distinguish from numbers. R (and many other computing environments) are doing the same, albeit without superscript:

1e10
#> [1] 1e+10

Created on 2018-01-16 by the reprex package (v0.1.1.9000).

@dpeterson71
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There are at least two features of the R output that make it clear what is happening:

  1. There is no superscript so there is no confusion about the meaning.
  2. The sign immediately follows the "e" and is connected to the power whether it is positive or negative.

Another feature of base R is that it always provides at least two digits.
For comparing magnitudes of numbers it is very easy to scan a column of three characters seeing "+" or "-" signs and a number denoting magnitude.

@jonasfoe
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For me the display in the Rstudio console is very awkward with when superscript is involved.
It's kind of hard to read.
I use the menlo font on my mac which should be pretty standard.

screen shot 2018-01-18 at 15 22 51

@pqmatagi
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pqmatagi commented Feb 2, 2018

I'm using the RStudio Server web client (Chrome, Mac, tibble 1.4.2) with the default UI scheme.

In addition to the annoying spacing as above that results from superscripting in the fixed width font, I get double superscripting in two-digit exponents - see attached screen clip.

tibble

So (IMHO) we get decreased readability compared to the lowest common denominator R formatting, with no saving in screen real estate, and no way to configure formatting consistent with the rest of the numbers printed in the console.

Please record one more vote for a backward compatibility option!

@alistaire47
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This printing does make it easier to understand what those numbers are, but at small font sizes or for people with bad eyesight, they're really hard to read. An option to turn them off would be nice.

@krlmlr krlmlr closed this as completed in c09586b Feb 22, 2018
@krlmlr
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krlmlr commented Feb 22, 2018

Thanks for your feedback, using regular digits again.

krlmlr added a commit that referenced this issue Feb 24, 2018
@krlmlr
Merge tag 'v1.1.0.9001'
e2d74dd 
- The negation sign is printed next to the number again (#91).
- Scientific notation uses regular digits again for exponents (#90).
- Numeric values with a `"class"` attribute are now formatted using `format()` if the `pillar_shaft()` method is not implemented for that class (#88).
- Groups of three digits are now underlined, starting with the fourth before/after the decimal point (#78).
krlmlr added a commit that referenced this issue Feb 26, 2018
@krlmlr
Merge tag 'v1.2.0'
6fbdc2f 
Display
-------

- Turned off using subtle style for digits that are considered insignificant.  Set the new option `pillar.subtle_num` to `TRUE` to turn it on again (default: `FALSE`).
- The negation sign is printed next to the number again (#91).
- Scientific notation uses regular digits again for exponents (#90).
- Groups of three digits are now underlined, starting with the fourth before/after the decimal point. This gives a better idea of the order of magnitude of the numbers (#78).
- Logical columns are displayed as `TRUE` and `FALSE` again (#95).
- The decimal dot is now always printed for numbers of type `numeric`. Trailing zeros are not displayed anymore if all displayed numbers are whole numbers (#62).
- Decimal values longer than 13 characters always print in scientific notation.

Bug fixes
---------

- Numeric values with a `"class"` attribute (e.g., `Duration` from lubridate) are now formatted using `format()` if the `pillar_shaft()` method is not implemented for that class (#88).
- Very small numbers (like `1e-310`) are now printed corectly (tidyverse/tibble#377).
- Fix representation of right-hand side for `getOption(pillar.sigfig) >= 6` (tidyverse/tibble#380).
- Fix computation of significant figures for numbers with absolute value >= 1 (#98).

New functions
-------------

- New styling helper `style_subtle_num()`, formatting depends on the `pillar.subtle_num` option.
krlmlr added a commit that referenced this issue Feb 27, 2018
@krlmlr
Merge tag 'v1.2.1'
2065df9 
Display
-------

- Turned off using subtle style for digits that are considered insignificant.  Negative numbers are shown all red.  Set the new option `pillar.subtle_num` to `TRUE` to turn it on again (default: `FALSE`).
- The negation sign is printed next to the number again (#91).
- Scientific notation uses regular digits again for exponents (#90).
- Groups of three digits are now underlined, starting with the fourth before/after the decimal point. This gives a better idea of the order of magnitude of the numbers (#78).
- Logical columns are displayed as `TRUE` and `FALSE` again (#95).
- The decimal dot is now always printed for numbers of type `numeric`. Trailing zeros are not shown anymore if all displayed numbers are whole numbers (#62).
- Decimal values longer than 13 characters always print in scientific notation.

Bug fixes
---------

- Numeric values with a `"class"` attribute (e.g., `Duration` from lubridate) are now formatted using `format()` if the `pillar_shaft()` method is not implemented for that class (#88).
- Very small numbers (like `1e-310`) are now printed corectly (tidyverse/tibble#377).
- Fix representation of right-hand side for `getOption("pillar.sigfig") >= 6` (tidyverse/tibble#380).
- Fix computation of significant figures for numbers with absolute value >= 1 (#98).

New functions
-------------

- New styling helper `style_subtle_num()`, formatting depends on the `pillar.subtle_num` option.
@alistaire47 alistaire47 mentioned this issue Mar 1, 2018
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5 participants
@jonasfoe @alistaire47 @krlmlr @pqmatagi @dpeterson71