ArcGIS Developer Help

IScientificNumberFormat Interface

Provides access to members that format scientific numbers.

Product Availability

Available with ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Desktop, and ArcGIS Server.

Description

The members in the IScientificNumberFormat interface define how the ValueToString method in the associated INumberFormat interface formats numbers.

ScientificFormat expresses numbers as a power of 10. For example, the value 1500 scientifically formatted to 3 significant digits is the expression 1.50e+003, where the number after 'e' is the power of 10. The meaning of this expression is 1.50 X 10^3. The number of digits in the power of 10 expression (+003) cannot be changed and is always a plus or minus sign and 3 digits.

All digits in a scientific format expression are significant. Set the DecimalPlaces property to the number of desired significant digits minus 1. For example, to express the value 1 to 3 significant digits (1.00e+000), set DecimalPlaces to 2.

When To Use

Use this interface when you want to express numbers in a scientific format, for example, to create a table of empirical values.

Members

	Name	Description
	DecimalPlaces	The number of decimal digits in a scientifically-formatted number.

Classes that implement IScientificNumberFormat

Classes	Description
ScientificFormat	An object for formatting numbers in a scientific format.

Remarks

The power behind the scientific format is a way of expressing significant zeros. For example, a 1000 yard distance measured with a bicycle odometer may only be accurate to the nearest 10th mile (176 yards). In this case, 1000 is only significant to one place and should be expressed as 1 X 10^3. On the other hand, you may know the measurement is precise to the last zero (perhaps you carefully measured this distance with a yardstick); you would then want to express the measurement as 1.000 X 10^3.