C Decimal Precision

Set Decimal Precision

You have probably already noticed that if you print a floating point number, the output will show many digits after the decimal point :

Example

float myFloatNum = 3.5;
double myDoubleNum = 19.99;

printf("%f\n", myFloatNum); // Outputs 3.500000
printf("%lf", myDoubleNum); // Outputs 19.990000

If you want to remove the extra zeros (set decimal precision), you can use a dot (.) followed by a number that specifies how many digits that should be shown after the decimal point:

Example

float myFloatNum = 3.5;

printf("%f\n", myFloatNum);   // Default will show 6 digits after the decimal point
printf("%.1f\n", myFloatNum); // Only show 1 digit
printf("%.2f\n", myFloatNum); // Only show 2 digits
printf("%.4f", myFloatNum);   // Only show 4 digits