uses scientific notation when not necessary

[goldmanm]

When inputting to_precision(132,2), I would expect it to return '130', but it actually gives '1.3e+2'. To my knowledge, both have the valid amount of significant figures, and the first one is easier to read. We might want to add a trailing zeros check.

I tried it on python 2.7 and 3.4 and got the same result.

Thanks so much for sharing this. I really like the code.

[randlet]

Yes you're right 130 is better there. Maybe for anything less than 1000 (or 10000? 9300 vs 9.3e3) displaying the trailing zeros is better.

[goldmanm]

The string formatting using the letter 'g' seems to have a default to not use exponential notation if the exponent is between -4 and some number 'p', which I could see also being around 4.

If the significant figures can be used correctly (no significant trailing zeros), checking whether the value of the exponent is between 0 and 4 (or 3), and then displaying that using regular notation might be a way to do this.

[randlet]

Yes, I agree following the g formatting makes sense.

[BebeSparkelSparkel]

@goldmanm
I rewrote some of this repo and anything > -1000 and < 1000 will be in standard notation otherwise it goes to scientific notation.

You can check it out at:
github.com/BebeSparkelSparkel/to-precision