\Header{format}{Encode in a Common Format}
\alias{format.default}{format}
\alias{format.pval}{format}
\keyword{character}{format}
\keyword{print}{format}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
format(x, ...)
format.default(x, trim=FALSE, digits = .Options$digits)
format.pval(x, digits= max(1,.Options$digits-2), eps = .Machine$double.eps)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\texttt{x}] any \R\ object (conceptually); typically numeric.
\item[\texttt{trim}] logical; if \texttt{TRUE}, leading blanks are trimmed off the
strings.
\item[\texttt{digits}] how many significant digits are to be used for
\texttt{\Link{numeric} x}. This is a suggestion: enough decimal
places will be used so that the smallest (in magnitude) number has
this many significant digits.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Description}
These functions convert their first argument to a vector (or array) of
character strings which have a common format (as is done by
\texttt{\Link{print}}).
The trimming with \texttt{trim = TRUE} is useful when the strings are to
be used for plot \texttt{\Link{axis}} annotation.

\texttt{format.pval} is mainly an auxiliary function for
\texttt{\Link{print.summary.lm}} etc., does separate formatting for
fixed, floating point and very small values (those \texttt{< eps}).

The function \texttt{\Link{formatC}} provides a rather more flexible
formatting facility for numbers, does \emph{not} provide a common format
for several numbers, however.\end{Description}
\begin{SeeAlso}
\texttt{\Link{formatC}}, \texttt{\Link{paste}}, \texttt{\Link{as.character}}.\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
format(1:10)

format(1:10)

p _ c(47,13,2,.1,.023,.0045, 1e-100)/1000
format.pval(p)
format.pval(p / 0.9)
format.pval(p / 0.9, dig=3)

p _ c(47,13,2,.1,.023,.0045, 1e-100)/1000
format.pval(p)
format.pval(p / 0.9)
format.pval(p / 0.9, dig=3)
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

