.Net, convert "8.33333333329E-2" to percents

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.Net, convert "8.33333333329E-2" to percents

I'm reading excel and there's cell that represents total cost of budget in percents.

In excel it looks like 8%, but once i read it, i get string 8.33333333329E-2.

Got confused a bit.

What would be correct data type and parsing technique to use and avoid losing data?

+2 A:

You probably have the excel cell formatting set to 0 decimal digits, and hence you see the wrong value, while 0.0833333333 is the actual value.

If you do want it as 0.08 (or 8%), round the value in excel.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:04:03

Indeed. For background, percentages in Excel are actually floating point numbers, where 1.0 represents 100%, i.e. if you stick 0.25 in a cell in Excel and format it as a percentage, it'll display as "25%". This is why your 8.333E-2, roughly 0.08, displays at 8%, when formatted as a percentage with no decimal places.

Matt Gibson 2010-08-19 10:07:41

No can do. Excel should not be touched at all.

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 10:14:27

@Arnis L.: Excel is showing your eyes inaccurate data.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:17:52

@leppie question is - how to work with it at .Net side now how it looks in excel. :)

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 10:26:09

@Arnis L.: Convert it to string or round it, like the above answer, if that is what your really want to do.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:40:49

@leppie it is string already. I want to save it in another data type that would represent percentage more naturally.

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 10:44:30

+1 A:

Something like ((int)Math.Round(value*100)).ToString() + "%";.

ChrisW 2010-08-19 10:05:17

Arrggghhhhhh, please use the format specifier for strings, iow `value.ToString("P0")`. A lot shorter and less error-prone.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:07:18

@leppi Are you saying you'd prefer to see `((int)Math.Round(value*100)).ToString("P0") + "%";`?

ChrisW 2010-08-19 10:09:53

A good thing about Math.Round is that you control how it's rounded; for example, you can specify whether you want 0.077 to be displayed as 7% or as 8%.

ChrisW 2010-08-19 10:15:17

@ChrisW: No, just `value.ToString("P0")`, it's all that is needed.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:15:25

@ChrisW: If you use round like that, it is wrong. You have functions like floor, ceiling, truncate, etc for those. They also behave correctly on negative numbers.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:16:32

`value` is string, i can't just multiple it with 100. Can't convert it to decimal cause of trailing `E-2`.

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 10:31:26

@Arnis L.: `double.Parse` should have no issue parsing that.

leppie 2010-08-19 10:41:32

Emm. It almost works. Period makes problems. `8.333...` fails, `8,333` works. What format provider it needs? Or anything else?

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 10:47:44

@Arnis L. - My guess would be `NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo`

ChrisW 2010-08-19 10:59:06

I guess it's fine now. Know how to parse it and know how to display it. Thank You ChrisW and leppie.

Arnis L. 2010-08-19 11:03:36

ansaurus

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.Net, convert "8.33333333329E-2" to percents

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