float to string function

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Software Development
6

Hi,

I've looked around the forum, but couldn't find a FloatToStr function that actually worked with out any bugs.

  • Tim's code has some problem displaying zero.
  • Mem's code does not have proper rounding, does not allow setting text minimum width.
  • Don's code also has some issues displaying zero and negative values

So I've combined mem's code with Tim's code, and a little bit from Don. This hopefully should work as a compact sprintf() replacement that has no bugs (famous last words :D). Maybe it can be more efficient, but I think it's pretty good.

char * floatToString(char * outstr, double val, byte precision, byte widthp){
  char temp[16];
  byte i;

  // compute the rounding factor and fractional multiplier
  double roundingFactor = 0.5;
  unsigned long mult = 1;
  for (i = 0; i < precision; i++)
  {
    roundingFactor /= 10.0;
    mult *= 10;
  }
  
  temp[0]='\0';
  outstr[0]='\0';

  if(val < 0.0){
    strcpy(outstr,"-\0");
    val = -val;
  }

  val += roundingFactor;

  strcat(outstr, itoa(int(val),temp,10));  //prints the int part
  if( precision > 0) {
    strcat(outstr, ".\0"); // print the decimal point
    unsigned long frac;
    unsigned long mult = 1;
    byte padding = precision -1;
    while(precision--)
      mult *=10;

    if(val >= 0)
      frac = (val - int(val)) * mult;
    else
      frac = (int(val)- val ) * mult;
    unsigned long frac1 = frac;

    while(frac1 /= 10)
      padding--;

    while(padding--)
      strcat(outstr,"0\0");

    strcat(outstr,itoa(frac,temp,10));
  }

  // generate space padding 
  if ((widthp != 0)&&(widthp >= strlen(outstr))){
    byte J=0;
    J = widthp - strlen(outstr);
    
    for (i=0; i< J; i++) {
      temp[i] = ' ';
    }

    temp[i++] = '\0';
    strcat(temp,outstr);
    strcpy(outstr,temp);
  }
  
  return outstr;
}