Add s.f. to variable

Hi, I was wondering if there is a way to set specifically the number of s.f. to a variable as you do when printing the answer. For instances,

a=2.335444444444
sprintf ('%.2f',a)

ans =

2.34

I want that but not to print the answer. Instead I want to alter the s.f. used in the variable, i.e. my code would be forced to use 2.34 in its calculations.

Answer 1

[A. Sawas]

I guess you mean by s.f. the format string in the sprintf function which is '%.2f' in your example.

There is a way to specify variable number of characters by using asterisks (*), like this example:

% 6 is the width
% 3 is the number of decimals
% 0.123456 is the number to be formatted
sprintf('%*.*f', 6, 3, 0.123456)

Another longer way would be to use sprintf to build your format string.

fs = sprintf('%%%d.%df',6,3);
sprintf(fs, 0.123456);