Question

I have a simple question, that I feel should have a simple solution. How do I format a floating number so that only the numbers after the decimal point show? I would prefer to use ‘{}’.format to accomplish this.

>>> n = 0.12345
>>> n
0.12345
>>> str(n)[1:]
'.12345'
>>> '{}'.format(n)
'0.12345'
>>> '{}'.format(str(n)[1:])
'.12345'

I know I can use str(n)[1:], but I’d prefer not to have to convert the number to a string.

Answer 1

I do not think there is a format string which removes the zero. However, you could use lstrip:

In [25]: n = 0.12345
In [26]: '{:.3f}'.format(n).lstrip('0')
Out[26]: '.123'

At least that is safer than str(n)[1:], which would remove a signficiant digit if n were equal to a number bigger than 1 or less than -1.