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Calculate a number to the power of a large integer

I'm trying to help someone calculate the value of 4^3e9.
The problem is that most software don't support numbers this large. Is there an alternative way to calculate this?
My first attempt is to try to divide the number as it is being calculated by looping from 1 to 3e9. If the intermediate result is > 10 then I divide it by it's power of 10, then add this to a variable. In the end I will have a floating point number and the power of 10.
import math
powerof10 = 0
powerof = int(3e9)
# print('powerof', powerof)
initial_value = 4
float_value = initial_value
for i in range(1,powerof): #start from 1 to get correct number of operations
float_value *= initial_value
# print('float value', float_value)
print(i)
if (float_value > 10):
powerof10increment = math.floor(math.log10(float_value))
# print('powerof10', powerof10increment)
powerof10 += powerof10increment
float_value /= 10**powerof10increment
# print('reduced float value', float_value)
print(float_value, ' x 10^', powerof10)
This based on this question here: I want to know what is the value of 4 to the power of 3000000000 (3e+9)
According to the question the number should be in the format 1 x 10^x, so I think only x is required.

Thanks to #NickODell for his comment!
import math
powerof10 = (3e9)*math.log(4)/math.log(10)
print(powerof10)
significand = 10**(powerof10 - math.floor(powerof10))
print(significand, 'x 10^', math.floor(powerof10))
# 9.63578180503111 x 10^ 1806179973
Which matches with the result I get from Wolfram Alpha.

How to avoid e-05 in python using a variable

I know that you can avoid getting outputted, for example, 1e-10 using '{:.10f}'.format(1e-10), but I would adjust to take the decimal places as a variable (the 10f and e-10) depending on what the the value after e is...
I've used this code to find the value of decimal points needed
a = 6.789e-05
b = str(a)
if b[5] == 'e':
if b[7] == '0':
decimal_places = int(b[8])
else:
decimal_places = int(b[7]+b[8])
But I am struggling to figure out how I could no adjust the decimal places of the variable a using what I've found? As replacing '10f' with the decimal_places variable doesn't work... any help appreciated!

I've written a simple function to get number precission:
def precision(num):
n = str(num).split('e')
if len(n) == 1:
return 0
x = 0 if len(n[0].split('.')) == 1 else len(n[0].split('.')[1])
return x + abs(int(n[1]))
Then you can use string formatting to print your number to desired precission:
a = 6.789e-05
b = 6e-05
c = 3.5
d = 5
print('{num:.{precision}f}'.format(num=a, precision=precision(a))) # 0.00006789
print('{num:.{precision}f}'.format(num=b, precision=precision(b))) # 0.00006
print('{num:.{precision}f}'.format(num=c, precision=precision(c))) # 3.5
print('{num:.{precision}f}'.format(num=d, precision=precision(d))) # 5

Python OverflowError: int too large to convert to float

I have a number and I want to find the sum of all of its possible substrings. Since the sum may be very large, I am taking modulo 1e9+7. Here is the code I wrote for it:
n = input()
total = 0
for i in range(len(n)):
for j in range(i, len(n)):
total = (total + int(n[i:j+1]))%(1e9+7)
print(int(total))
But this gives me Overflow error:
OverflowError: int too large to convert to float
Taking modulo inside also doesn't help:
total = (total%(1e9+7) + int(n[i:j+1])%(1e9+7))%(1e9+7)
Neither does converting total to int every step:
total = int((total%(1e9+7) + int(n[i:j+1])%(1e9+7))%(1e9+7))
I searched online, and many people were using decimal, so I tried that too:
import decimal
n = input()
total = 0
for i in range(len(n)):
for j in range(i, len(n)):
total = decimal.Decimal((int(total)%(1e9+7) + int(n[i:j+1])%(1e9+7))%(1e9+7))
print(int(total))
This also gave me the same error. So how can I fix it?
EDIT:
This is the input value causing the error:
63007895494540748697130257211701132911672127113982917934957238363754144356260578781606111036085360074421257207207387198523322868167701948879591559261313655853869741936915896141380413900486094968371175676410640884374632431850709016596137311611050415651036226139008641575836931194661785509132233097446922537947515703465398622143008692876882535026564205087414814876285063338031809221849792393893433149494497789721825006237838192606565116804799001721467342272432009712314084904086422379596732252144585986596196750288347933150685033753522443039157103807332491116413966300613741751053919270582143539182365841138533836973023237702830069573886631046833437773543939255134613488502488921701075580406239690138018459241613732213353199068094195960086440933264712021949041470198397933937575146560984080148459288992517286710576766386500347467387730678249218006735385649387335208267283324236829570036194140660709429852497101058284815529517587641628078980207037631383236114879153070060203938791830375096696531139157470783772857017638497070485512459440717225126809870697837609054291292934449251338418323104001620741264801956189141105715135298492818411518148353495966691130971474426577393248709217076189389546980748699933003944761579539683492598357473775080656936009069500959707744011739717600412538480688678363966062155016279422282550330186675591906410237102542897020260947416709372597337702901936954248900890739981634426827110725142264244439429503167749662657491819253898730703219914172569228601526136901294517438068414448408652485288627071736842683249099077215845807526690476654299190397040746528470362309997516648677591695269107335587796459234023073152908830766246216873096608906233643638927751392979298950952796180665578245384773623638725905735891369383833201685178140752435935281322907250538065071169304917667919102159102138937264124738496487528733665070884612044627688227281074562269370933157831720664584804270606755748075851155331082464002064939435532230555080408656278406091954428953100831871658476246847962625412944027106283123969563281644107592096927875380676545163227869818230832531369338104630185063964880075428674709642025343042348947946680468148204427273799945049955546582316448003742222236732940414274528382294789931354040436608227971710151521614759476639229242951124359411795292331914156083470605030293573012447568075893343623149168527048295141160679023585092938002707648154463420344913624817717119873800348683837221793276968989888478424382685528609128835823933770712162540205085109082587070367630067313533064776696964861827502508459812330918599106584868738991756659193306367398956355438229525202113654400239026884347461343064397664025248463273627585729047677445867514652971446394066091970616323396951168504154562483771764698148733870822358926184753051413327111690674109191730327822065319240519599901011286438320648370316577747649941281847889063992145722797473369698092782688190504008577236785654455943124233206826773616384851418122764189601284051343171878932046232940010251668912231630645042775980083200386480623888072677846344562885143783746246053531215869425826330930224051778041164960804697442635688285354389497086198777434999457478133661733653282161024413460328143721896372700138331902360395339801002849019324370472928179634514835029042196634893085002987449024538653084769349649361780544448023900419085030996025293267821633224287187700999723244561243626140770409199181283529285321805520719869999019359632752206587151332438340443688561748988667594627862916961421297673484360219893809090908042382241699048289169441570762688018233512738556484549696872250253106450823679449014903702137375687542527806962174586086391239919664138841439946317125776119213371905889154041992606193725968405596076183819908160092384091833692412052633523651650011510824185528743026380948023336408400010564640963891087899442082042255224880906285306297131459863380833411401041892413336493399820935278521945245608933772102214407947819925650130234521834285827823524419976919232687982300093777249782891412337818506769860369083173352493958839602578474422541850108379964969139387326989233531541598506923936086930628743016172543394216721521126188175476215460711352124477581111228767588146320455790337298329662450219245997135624667608463321777810934443458141729689725088157058043698135069334292367985922828854113138954089429957666350752537071506611029281378035862848313230313174298317644570058264296631872189631662359826821867318972251771854913270152954052083892228397794195634661858474972482726585256885550036123081470648813461106884531635459879919973084520662462817291748845738645963318596934145967253237900796485048018611047753698931624813763287089062288176545539923325893133941049487204878644538080562085371696536278985940315314490818357538393931021727970513972156001956807121425599497440857264884182862594848418387223228176775493691062756510368292537574241902481598785658616637811580124317555926904680461026827106118762447230822380546660264294026004268281275625671458696016538340789809948700289444406217883939127200226299337494154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53

Convert it into Decimal
from decimal import Decimal
Decimal(630078954945407486971302572117011329116721271139829179349572383637541443562605787816061110360853600744212572072073871985233228681677019488795915592613136558538697419369158961413804139004860949683711756764106408843746324318507090165961373116110504156510362261390086415758369311946617855091322330974469225379475157034653986221430086928768825350265642050874148148762850633380318092218497923938934331494944977897218250062378381926065651168047990017214673422724320097123140849040864223795967322521445859865961967502883479331506850337535224430391571038073324911164139663006137417510539192705821435391823658411385338369730232377028300695738866310468334377735439392551346134885024889217010755804062396901380184592416137322133531990680941959600864409332647120219490414701983979339375751465609840801484592889925172867105767663865003474673877306782492180067353856493873352082672833242368295700361941406607094298524971010582848155295175876416280789802070376313832361148791530700602039387918303750966965311391574707837728570176384970704855124594407172251268098706978376090542912929344492513384183231040016207412648019561891411057151352984928184115181483534959666911309714744265773932487092170761893895469807486999330039447615795396834925983574737750806569360090695009597077440117397176004125384806886783639660621550162794222825503301866755919064102371025428970202609474167093725973377029019369542489008907399816344268271107251422642444394295031677496626574918192538987307032199141725692286015261369012945174380684144484086524852886270717368426832490990772158458075266904766542991903970407465284703623099975166486775916952691073355877964592340230731529088307662462168730966089062336436389277513929792989509527961806655782453847736236387259057358913693838332016851781407524359352813229072505380650711693049176679191021591021389372641247384964875287336650708846120446276882272810745622693709331578317206645848042706067557480758511553310824640020649394355322305550804086562784060919544289531008318716584762468479626254129440271062831239695632816441075920969278753806765451632278698182308325313693381046301850639648800754286747096420253430423489479466804681482044272737999450499555465823164480037422222367329404142745283822947899313540404366082279717101515216147594766392292429511243594117952923319141560834706050302935730124475680758933436231491685270482951411606790235850929380027076481544634203449136248177171198738003486838372217932769689898884784243826855286091288358239337707121625402050851090825870703676300673135330647766969648618275025084598123309185991065848687389917566591933063673989563554382295252021136544002390268843474613430643976640252484632736275857290476774458675146529714463940660919706163233969511685041545624837717646981487338708223589261847530514133271116906741091917303278220653192405195999010112864383206483703165777476499412818478890639921457227974733696980927826881905040085772367856544559431242332068267736163848514181227641896012840513431718789320462329400102516689122316306450427759800832003864806238880726778463445628851437837462460535312158694258263309302240517780411649608046974426356882853543894970861987774349994574781336617336532821610244134603281437218963727001383319023603953398010028490193243704729281796345148350290421966348930850029874490245386530847693496493617805444480239004190850309960252932678216332242871877009997232445612436261407704091991812835292853218055207198699990193596327522065871513324383404436885617489886675946278629169614212976734843602198938090909080423822416990482891694415707626880182335127385564845496968722502531064508236794490149037021373756875425278069621745860863912399196641388414399463171257761192133719058891540419926061937259684055960761838199081600923840918336924120526335236516500115108241855287430263809480233364084000105646409638910878994420820422552248809062853062971314598633808334114010418924133364933998209352785219452456089337721022144079478199256501302345218342858278235244199769192326879823000937772497828914123378185067698603690831733524939588396025784744225418501083799649691393873269892335315415985069239360869306287430161725433942167215211261881754762154607113521244775811112287675881463204557903372983296624502192459971356246676084633217778109344434581417296897250881570580436981350693342923679859228288541131389540894299576663507525370715066110292813780358628483132303131742983176445700582642966318721896316623598268218673189722517718549132701529540520838922283977941956346618584749724827265852568855500361230814706488134611068845316354598799199730845206624628172917488457386459633185969341459672532379007964850480186110477536989316248137632870890622881765455399233258931339410494872048786445380805620853716965362789859403153144908183575383939310217279705139721560019568071214255994974408572648841828625948484183872232281767754936910627565103682925375742419024815987856586166378115801243175559269046804610268271061187624472308223805466602642940260042682812756256714586960165383407898099487002894444062178839391272002262993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1523212253)

The best solution to this question runs in linear time. Here's the idea:
let's look at a shorter example: 1234
consider the total sum of the substrings which end on the ith digit (0..3)
substringsum[0]: 1 (we have only a single substring)
substringsum[1]: 2 + 12 (two substrings)
substringsum[2]: 3+23+123 (three substrings)
substringsum[3]: 4 + 34+234+1234
see a pattern?
let's look at substringsum[2]:
3 + 23 + 123 = 3 + 20+3 + 120+3 = 3*3 + 20+120 = 3*3 + 10*(2+12) = 3*3 +10*substringsum[1]
in general:
substringsum[k] = (k+1)*digit[k] + 10 * substringsum[k-1]
This you can compute in linear time.
This type of ideas is called "Dynamic Programming"

The overflow error suggest that there's an undesired conversion to float, which I assume you did not intend. The conversion happens because the type of 1e9 is float. To fix this, use % int(1e9+7) instead of % 1e9+7

Round to whole numbers without using conditional statements in Python - Logic

I'm taking a Python course at Udacity, and I'm trying to work this out for myself without looking at the answer. Perhaps you can give me a hint for my logic?
Below are the instructions and what I have so far. We haven't learned conditional statements yet, so I can't use those. We've only learned how to assign/print a variable, strings, indexing strings, sub-sequences, and .find. They just introduced the str command in this final exercise.
# Given a variable, x, that stores the
# value of any decimal number, write Python
# code that prints out the nearest whole
# number to x.
# If x is exactly half way between two
# whole numbers, round up, so
# 3.5 rounds to 4 and 2.5 rounds to 3.
# You may assume x is not negative.
# Hint: The str function can convert any number into a string.
# eg str(89) converts the number 89 to the string '89'
# Along with the str function, this problem can be solved
# using just the information introduced in unit 1.
# x = 3.14159
# >>> 3 (not 3.0)
# x = 27.63
# >>> 28 (not 28.0)
# x = 3.5
# >>> 4 (not 4.0)
x = 3.54159
#ENTER CODE BELOW HERE
x = str(x)
dec = x.find('.')
tenth = dec + 1
print x[0:dec]
////
So this gets me to print the characters up to the decimal point, but I can't figure out how to have the computer check whether "tenth" is > 4 or < 5 and print out something according to the answer.
I figured I could probably get far enough for it to return a -1 if "tenth" wasn't > 4, but I don't know how I can get it to print x[0:dec] if it's < 5 and x[0:dec]+1 if it's > 4.
:/
Could someone please give me a nudge in the right direction?

This is a weird restriction, but you could do this:
x = str(x)
dec_index = x.find('.')
tenth_index = dec_index + 1
tenth_place = x[tenth_index] # will be a string of length 1
should_round_up = 5 + tenth_place.find('5') + tenth_place.find('6') + tenth_place.find('7') + tenth_place.find('8') + tenth_place.find('9')
print int(x[0:dec_index]) + should_round_up
What we do is look at the tenths place. Since .find() returns -1 if the argument isn't found, the sum of the .find() calls will be -4 if if the tenths place is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 (since one of the .find() calls will succeed and return 0), but will be -5 if the tenths place is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. We add 5 to that, so that should_round_up equals 1 if we should round up, and 0 otherwise. Add that to the whole number part, and we're done.
That said, if you weren't subject to this artificial restriction, you would do:
print round(x)
And move on with your life.

judging by the accepted answer you only expects floats so that is pretty trivial to solve:
x = 3.54159
# split on .
a, b = str(x).split(".")
# cast left side to int and add result of test for right side being greater or equal to 5
print(int(a) + (int(b) >= 5))
(int(b) > 5) will be either 1 or 0 i.e True/False so we either add 1 when right side is > .5 or flooring when it's < .5 and adding 0.
If you were doing it mathematically you just need to print(int(x+.5)), anything >= .5 will mean x will be rounded up and floored when it is < .5.

x = 3.54159
# split on .
a, b = str(x).split(".")
# cast left side to int and add result of test for right side being greater or equal to 5
print(int(a) + (int(b[0]) >= 5))
# above code will not work with 3.14567 and the number with having two or more digits after decimal

I think it's easier...
x = x + 0.5
intPart, decPart = str(x).split(".")
print intPart
Examples:
If x = 1, then it will become 1.5 and intPart will be 1.
If x = 1.1, then it will become 1.6 and intPart will be 1.
If x = 1.6, then it will become 2.1 and intPart will be 2.
Note: it will only work for positive numbers.

This code will round numbers to the nearest whole
without using conditionals
You can do it this way
x = 3.54159
x = x + 0.5 # This automatically takes care of the rounding
str_x = str(x) # Converting number x to string
dp = str_x.find('.') # Finding decimal point index
print str_x[:dp] # Printing upto but excluding decimal point

I did the same course at Udacity. solved it using the following code:
y = str(x)
decimal = y.find('.')
y_increment = y[decimal+1:]
print decimal
print y_increment
# Section below finds >5
check5 = y_increment.find('5',0,1)
check6 = y_increment.find('6',0,1)
check7 = y_increment.find('7',0,1)
check8 = y_increment.find('8',0,1)
check9 = y_increment.find('9',0,1)
yes_increment = (check5 + 1) + (check6 + 1) + (check7 + 1) + (check8 + 1) + (check9 + 1)
print check5, check6, check7, check8, check9
#Calculate rounding up
z = x + (yes_increment)
z = str(z)
final_decimal = z.find('.')
print z[:final_decimal]

Python Decimal - engineering notation for mili (10e-3) and micro (10e-6)

Here is the example which is bothering me:
>>> x = decimal.Decimal('0.0001')
>>> print x.normalize()
>>> print x.normalize().to_eng_string()
0.0001
0.0001
Is there a way to have engineering notation for representing mili (10e-3) and micro (10e-6)?

Here's a function that does things explicitly, and also has support for using SI suffixes for the exponent:
def eng_string( x, format='%s', si=False):
'''
Returns float/int value <x> formatted in a simplified engineering format -
using an exponent that is a multiple of 3.
format: printf-style string used to format the value before the exponent.
si: if true, use SI suffix for exponent, e.g. k instead of e3, n instead of
e-9 etc.
E.g. with format='%.2f':
1.23e-08 => 12.30e-9
123 => 123.00
1230.0 => 1.23e3
-1230000.0 => -1.23e6
and with si=True:
1230.0 => 1.23k
-1230000.0 => -1.23M
'''
sign = ''
if x < 0:
x = -x
sign = '-'
exp = int( math.floor( math.log10( x)))
exp3 = exp - ( exp % 3)
x3 = x / ( 10 ** exp3)
if si and exp3 >= -24 and exp3 <= 24 and exp3 != 0:
exp3_text = 'yzafpnum kMGTPEZY'[ ( exp3 - (-24)) / 3]
elif exp3 == 0:
exp3_text = ''
else:
exp3_text = 'e%s' % exp3
return ( '%s'+format+'%s') % ( sign, x3, exp3_text)

EDIT:
Matplotlib implemented the engineering formatter, so one option is to directly use Matplotlibs formatter, e.g.:
import matplotlib as mpl
formatter = mpl.ticker.EngFormatter()
formatter(10000)
result: '10 k'
Original answer:
Based on Julian Smith's excellent answer (and this answer), I changed the function to improve on the following points:
Python3 compatible (integer division)
Compatible for 0 input
Rounding to significant number of digits, by default 3, no trailing zeros printed
so here's the updated function:
import math
def eng_string( x, sig_figs=3, si=True):
"""
Returns float/int value <x> formatted in a simplified engineering format -
using an exponent that is a multiple of 3.
sig_figs: number of significant figures
si: if true, use SI suffix for exponent, e.g. k instead of e3, n instead of
e-9 etc.
"""
x = float(x)
sign = ''
if x < 0:
x = -x
sign = '-'
if x == 0:
exp = 0
exp3 = 0
x3 = 0
else:
exp = int(math.floor(math.log10( x )))
exp3 = exp - ( exp % 3)
x3 = x / ( 10 ** exp3)
x3 = round( x3, -int( math.floor(math.log10( x3 )) - (sig_figs-1)) )
if x3 == int(x3): # prevent from displaying .0
x3 = int(x3)
if si and exp3 >= -24 and exp3 <= 24 and exp3 != 0:
exp3_text = 'yzafpnum kMGTPEZY'[ exp3 // 3 + 8]
elif exp3 == 0:
exp3_text = ''
else:
exp3_text = 'e%s' % exp3
return ( '%s%s%s') % ( sign, x3, exp3_text)

The decimal module is following the Decimal Arithmetic Specification, which states:
This is outdated - see below
to-scientific-string – conversion to numeric string
[...]
The coefficient is first converted to a string in base ten using the characters 0 through 9 with no leading zeros (except if its value is zero, in which case a single 0 character is used).
Next, the adjusted exponent is calculated; this is the exponent, plus the number of characters in the converted coefficient, less one. That is, exponent+(clength-1), where clength is the length of the coefficient in decimal digits.
If the exponent is less than or equal to zero and the adjusted exponent is greater than or equal to -6, the number will be converted
to a character form without using exponential notation.
[...]
to-engineering-string – conversion to numeric string
This operation converts a number to a string, using engineering
notation if an exponent is needed.
The conversion exactly follows the rules for conversion to scientific
numeric string except in the case of finite numbers where exponential
notation is used. In this case, the converted exponent is adjusted to be a multiple of three (engineering notation) by positioning the decimal point with one, two, or three characters preceding it (that is, the part before the decimal point will range from 1 through 999).
This may require the addition of either one or two trailing zeros.
If after the adjustment the decimal point would not be followed by a digit then it is not added. If the final exponent is zero then no indicator letter and exponent is suffixed.
Examples:
For each abstract representation [sign, coefficient, exponent] on the left, the resulting string is shown on the right.
Representation
String
[0,123,1]
"1.23E+3"
[0,123,3]
"123E+3"
[0,123,-10]
"12.3E-9"
[1,123,-12]
"-123E-12"
[0,7,-7]
"700E-9"
[0,7,1]
"70"
Or, in other words:
>>> for n in (10 ** e for e in range(-1, -8, -1)):
... d = Decimal(str(n))
... print d.to_eng_string()
...
0.1
0.01
0.001
0.0001
0.00001
0.000001
100E-9

I realize that this is an old thread, but it does come near the top of a search for python engineering notation and it seems prudent to have this information located here.
I am an engineer who likes the "engineering 101" engineering units. I don't even like designations such as 0.1uF, I want that to read 100nF. I played with the Decimal class and didn't really like its behavior over the range of possible values, so I rolled a package called engineering_notation that is pip-installable.
pip install engineering_notation
From within Python:
>>> from engineering_notation import EngNumber
>>> EngNumber('1000000')
1M
>>> EngNumber(1000000)
1M
>>> EngNumber(1000000.0)
1M
>>> EngNumber('0.1u')
100n
>>> EngNumber('1000m')
1
This package also supports comparisons and other simple numerical operations.
https://github.com/slightlynybbled/engineering_notation

The «full» quote shows what is wrong!
The decimal module is indeed following the proprietary (IBM) Decimal Arithmetic Specification.
Quoting this IBM specification in its entirety clearly shows what is wrong with decimal.to_eng_string() (emphasis added):
to-engineering-string – conversion to numeric string
This operation converts a number to a string, using engineering
notation if an exponent is needed.
The conversion exactly follows the rules for conversion to scientific
numeric string except in the case of finite numbers where exponential
notation is used. In this case, the converted exponent is adjusted to be a multiple of three (engineering notation) by positioning the decimal point with one, two, or three characters preceding it (that is, the part before the decimal point will range from 1 through 999). This may require the addition of either one or two trailing zeros.
If after the adjustment the decimal point would not be followed by a digit then it is not added. If the final exponent is zero then no indicator letter and exponent is suffixed.
This proprietary IBM specification actually admits to not applying the engineering notation for numbers with an infinite decimal representation, for which ordinary scientific notation is used instead! This is obviously incorrect behaviour for which a Python bug report was opened.
Solution
from math import floor, log10
def powerise10(x):
""" Returns x as a*10**b with 0 <= a < 10
"""
if x == 0: return 0,0
Neg = x < 0
if Neg: x = -x
a = 1.0 * x / 10**(floor(log10(x)))
b = int(floor(log10(x)))
if Neg: a = -a
return a,b
def eng(x):
"""Return a string representing x in an engineer friendly notation"""
a,b = powerise10(x)
if -3 < b < 3: return "%.4g" % x
a = a * 10**(b % 3)
b = b - b % 3
return "%.4gE%s" % (a,b)
Source: https://code.activestate.com/recipes/578238-engineering-notation/
Test result
>>> eng(0.0001)
100E-6

Like the answers above, but a bit more compact:
from math import log10, floor
def eng_format(x,precision=3):
"""Returns string in engineering format, i.e. 100.1e-3"""
x = float(x) # inplace copy
if x == 0:
a,b = 0,0
else:
sgn = 1.0 if x > 0 else -1.0
x = abs(x)
a = sgn * x / 10**(floor(log10(x)))
b = int(floor(log10(x)))
if -3 < b < 3:
return ("%." + str(precision) + "g") % x
else:
a = a * 10**(b % 3)
b = b - b % 3
return ("%." + str(precision) + "gE%s") % (a,b)
Trial:
In [10]: eng_format(-1.2345e-4,precision=5)
Out[10]: '-123.45E-6'