related enhancement: bug# 77834

Hi DF, maybe the option in:
Menu/Tools/Options/LibreOffice calc/Calculate/General Calculations - Precision as shown, is not what you want, but can help a bit.

Hi DF,

Did you try the scientific format for numbers ? For me it does what you want.

Set status to NEEDINFO. Please set it back to UNCONFIRMED once you provided the requested informations. Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards. JBF

Jean-Baptiste Faure, the scientific format is scientific notation and it so happens the nature of it allows it work as I like however is a different formatting and not particularily asthetically pleasing or practical for modest numbers ex 123 vs 1.23E+2. I would like to keep precision while also keeping the standard formatting.

m.a.riosv, thanks but the 'precision as shown' appears to be for calculations, not formatting. It performs the calculations based on the precision shown and not the exact value and thus would be prone to rounding errors for multiple consecutive calculations. Im merely looking for a formatting option which properly displays a desired number of significant figures (not decimal places) and carries the formatting forward in calculations instead of having to do it manually.

I think it is a false good idea because in some case there is no valid display. For example with data like 120, 34.567 and 0.000890, if you want 3 significant digit you will get 120, 34.5 and 0.00 which does not render the data correctly.

I agree that the scientific formatting suffers of aesthetic drawbacks but it is always correct.

So I suggest to close this enhancement request as WontFix.

Best regards. JBF

For the last numeric example, 0.000890 is already 3 significant figures, and yes 0.00 is meaningless. From left to right, you start counting your figures from the first non-zero. Leading zeros don't count.

Significant figures are an integral part in taking measurements hence why it is drilled into undergraduate science students (and likely engineers) and is ubiquitous in research. This is not an enhancement which I thought up overnight, I've been finding the lack of this feature a nuisance for years and found it to be void of all spreadsheet software I've tried sofar (and I've looked). I think it would make a great addition for productivity. I've consulted others (who use Excel) and agreed this would be a useful feature.

A quick search shows me this is a commonplace, and there is no solution other than workarounds such as using scientific notation, or using a formula.
http://spreadsheetpage.com/index.php/tip/rounding_to_n_significant_digits/
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=231129
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25658
http://www.faculty.umassd.edu/michele.mandrioli/172cbook/fCHM1.B.3.html
I've looked extensively through feature requests too, and found none.

As for implementing it, it would likely be an option between displaying specified number of decimal places or significant figures.

Another fine request.

New
Enhancement
Low - for most users they'll not see this as a hurdle.

Might be relatively easy to add, requesting input.