[R] mysterious rounding digits output

[Jim Lemon]

Hi Joshua,
Because there are no values in column ddd less than 1.

itemInfo[3,"ddd"]<-0.3645372
itemInfo
            aaa   bbb   ccc   ddd    eee
skill     1.396 6.225 0.517 5.775  2.497
predict   1.326 5.230 0.462 5.116 -2.673
waiting   1.117 4.948    NA 0.365     NA
complex   1.237 4.170 0.220 4.713  5.642
novelty   1.054 4.005 0.442 4.260  2.076
creative  1.031 3.561 0.362 3.689  2.549
evaluated 0.963 3.013    NA    NA     NA
body      0.748 2.238 0.596 2.019  0.466
control   0.620 2.149    NA    NA     NA
stakes    0.541 1.905 0.227 2.020  2.343
spont     0.496 1.620    NA    NA     NA
chatter   0.460 1.563 0.361 1.382  0.540
present   0.428 1.236 0.215 1.804  2.194
reward    0.402 1.101 0.288 1.208  0.890
feedback  0.283 0.662    NA    NA     NA
goal      0.237 0.474    NA    NA     NA

digits specifies the number of significant digits ("It is a suggestion
only"), so when at least one number is padded with a leading zero it
affects the formatting of the other numbers in that column. I suspect
that this is an esthetic consideration to line up the decimal points.

Jim


On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 11:18 AM, Joshua N Pritikin <jpritikin using pobox.com> wrote:
> R version 3.5.0 (2018-04-23) -- "Joy in Playing"
> Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>
> options(digits=3)
>
> itemInfo <- structure(list("aaa" = c(1.39633732316667, 1.32598263816667,  1.11658324066667, 1.23651072616667, 1.05368679983333, 1.03100737383333,  0.9630728395, 0.7483865045, 0.620086646166667, 0.5411017985,  0.496397607833333, 0.459528044666667, 0.427877047833333, 0.402085979666667,  0.283161181233333, 0.236896277233333), "bbb" = c(6.22533860696667,  5.229736804, 4.94816041772833, 4.17020503255333, 4.00453781427167,  3.56058007398333, 3.0125202404, 2.23782358733333, 2.14863910661167,  1.90460903044777, 1.62001089796667, 1.56341257968151, 1.23618558850667,  1.10086688908262, 0.661981500639833, 0.47397754310745), "ccc" = c(0.5165911355,  0.462204707666667, NA, 0.219635924333333, 0.441863780833333,  0.361502865833333, NA, 0.596137946666667, NA, 0.226984771566667,  NA, 0.360922661583333, 0.2145347068, 0.287756249483333, NA, NA ), "ddd" = c(5.77538400186667,  5.115877113, NA, 4.71294520316667, 4.25952652129833, 3.68879921863167,  NA, 2.01942456211145, NA, 2.02032557108, NA, 1.3818108759571,  1.80436759778167, 1.20789851993367, NA, NA), "eee" = c(2.49725347166667,  -2.67340172316667, NA, 5.64195206333333, 2.07633555233333, 2.548949539,  NA, 0.465537272243167, NA, 2.34255027516667, NA, 0.5400824922975,  2.1935000655, 0.890007976866667, NA, NA)), row.names = c("skill",  "predict", "waiting", "complex", "novelty", "creative", "evaluated",  "body", "control", "stakes", "spont", "chatter", "present", "reward",  "feedback", "goal"), class = "data.frame")
>
> itemInfo  # examine column ddd
>
> When I try this, column ddd has 1 fewer digits than expected. See the
> attached screenshot.
>
> Why don't all the columns have the same number of digits displayed?
>
> --
> Joshua N. Pritikin, Ph.D.
> Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics
> Virginia Commonwealth University
> PO Box 980126
> 800 E Leigh St, Biotech One, Suite 1-133
> Richmond, VA 23219
> http://exuberant-island.surge.sh
>
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