MATLAB: Scientific notation in each element

displayscientific notation

Is it possible to display scientific notation independantly in each element of the matrix?
Currently matlab has a global exponential term:
a = [2*10^1 5*10^30]
a =
1.0e+30 *
0.0000 5.0000
The problem is that if there is even just one huge number in the matrix, the other numbers are all displayed as 0.0000 and contain 0 information
A better display would be:
a = [2*10^1 5*10^30]
a =
2.000e+01 5.000e+30
This is what Numpy does and I think it makes much more sense.
Of course, the original display may be useful as a warning of having some undesired large numbers in the matrix so that we can be aware of some numerical bugs sooner.
Perhaps the ideal solution is to provide separate functions to display things like:
disp1(a)
a =
1.0e+30 *
0.0000 5.0000
disp2(a)
a =
2.000e+01 5.000e+30

Best Answer

Hi c^2,
try "format short g" beforehand.
Things stay that way until further notice. To go back to the default you can use "format".