MATLAB: Trying to understand the format SHORT setup

documentationMATLAB

I am learning MATLAB from the fundamentals and I have encountered this section about the format SHORT setup which is the default. From the documentation it says that this setting is used by default and that it is meant to return 5-digit scaled, fixed-point values.
For example, when I try these:
>> 12.5
ans =
   12.5000
>> pi
ans =
    3.1416
>> 88854.2301
ans =
   8.8854e+04
I notice that there are always 4 digits after the decimal point. So what is the meaning of the "5-digital scaled"? I quite fail to understand it.

Best Answer

Five decimal digits = one to the left of the decimal, four to the right of the decimal, and exponential notation as necessary.
Experiment with the other format options as well, to see how they work.
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