Is there a format in MATLAB to display numbers such that commas are automatically inserted into the display?

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I would like to display large numbers with commas separating the digits for readability purposes. For example, I would like MATLAB to display one billion as 1,000,000,000 rather than 1000000000. How can I do this?

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 26 Feb 2024
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 29 Feb 2024
You can enhance the readability of large numbers by formatting them with commas to separate digits using the "java.text.DecimalFormat" class. See the below code for an example of this:
function numOut = addComma(numIn)
import java.text.*
jf=java.text.DecimalFormat; % comma for thousands, three decimal places
numOut= char(jf.format(numIn)); % omit "char" if you want a string out
end
Then, calling the function will result in a comma separated number.
addComma(10000.12)
% 10,000.12

More Answers (2)

Ted Shultz
Ted Shultz on 13 Jun 2018
A simple way is to add this two line function:
function numOut = addComma(numIn)
jf=java.text.DecimalFormat; % comma for thousands, three decimal places
numOut= char(jf.format(numIn)); % omit "char" if you want a string out
end
Hope that helps! --ted

Toshiaki Takeuchi
Toshiaki Takeuchi on 14 Nov 2023
Using pattern
vec = 123456789;
txt = string(vec);
pat1 = lookBehindBoundary(digitsPattern); % (?<=\d)
pat2 = asManyOfPattern(digitsPattern(3),1); % (\d{3})+
pat3 = lookAheadBoundary(pat2+lineBoundary("end")); % (?=(\d{3})+$)
pat4 = pat1+pat3; % (?<=\d)(?=(\d{3})+$)
replace(txt,pat4,",")
ans = "123,456,789"
  3 Comments
Toshiaki Takeuchi
Toshiaki Takeuchi on 30 Jan 2024
How about this?
str = arrayfun(@(x) string(num2str(x)), (0:500:2000)');
str2 = [str;str + ".12345"]
str2 = 10×1 string array
"0" "500" "1000" "1500" "2000" "0.12345" "500.12345" "1000.12345" "1500.12345" "2000.12345"
pat1 = lookBehindBoundary(digitsPattern); % (?<=\d)
pat2 = asManyOfPattern(digitsPattern(3),1); % (\d{3})+
pat3 = lookAheadBoundary(pat2+lineBoundary("end")); % (?=(\d{3})+$)
pat4 = pat1+pat3; % (?<=\d)(?=(\d{3})+$)
isDecimal = contains(str2,".");
str3 = split(str2(isDecimal),".");
str2(isDecimal) = str3(:,1);
str4 = replace(str2,pat4,",");
str4(isDecimal) = str4(isDecimal) + "." + str3(:,2)
str4 = 10×1 string array
"0" "500" "1,000" "1,500" "2,000" "0.12345" "500.12345" "1,000.12345" "1,500.12345" "2,000.12345"
Stephen23
Stephen23 on 10 Feb 2024
Edited: Stephen23 on 10 Feb 2024
That seems to work much better. Note that this
str0 = arrayfun(@(x) string(num2str(x)), (0:500:2000)');
can be replaced with the much simpler and more efficient:
str1 = string(0:500:2000).';
isequal(str0,str1)
ans = logical
1

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