# Avoid \`-\` in \`@sprintf("%.1f", -0.001)\`
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, printf
**Created:** [May 29, 2026, 11:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334 "2026-05-29T11:23:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 11:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334/1 "2026-05-29T11:23:13Z")
The title says it all, but generally I want to avoid a negative number that is rounded to all-zeros by `printf` to have a `-`.
```julia
julia> using Printf
julia> @sprintf("%.1f", -0.001)
"-0.0"
```
> **see a truly horrid solution here**
>
> ```julia-auto
> function my_format(x::Real)
> s = @sprintf("%.1f", x)
> m = match(r"^-([0.]+)$", s)
> if m ≡ nothing
> s
> else
> m.captures[1]
> end
> end
>
> ```
---
### Author:  [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 11:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334/2 "2026-05-29T11:38:15Z")
AFAIK `printf` doesn’t support this. Something like `x = round(x; digits = 1) == 0 ? 0 : x` seems slightly cleaner than tweaking the output, especially when your format string specifies padding etc.
---
### Author:  [@technocrat](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/technocrat)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334/3 "2026-05-29T14:19:25Z")
This is standard IEEE 754 floating-point behavior, and there are three workarounds,
Along the lines as suggested by @pfitzseb
```julia
using Printf
val = -0.001
# If the value rounds to 0.0, use the absolute value
formatted = @sprintf("%.1f", abs(val) < 0.05 ? 0.0 : val)
```
or a slightly less horrid function
```julia
using Printf
val = -0.001
# Add 0.0 to strip the negative sign from -0.0
# round(val, digits=1) results in -0.0, but -0.0 + 0.0 == 0.0
clean_val = round(val, digits=1) + 0.0
@sprintf("%.1f", clean_val) # Output: "0.0"
```
I’d avoid the only other alternative I see
```julia
replace(@sprintf("%.1f", -0.001), "-0.0" => "0.0")
```
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334/4 "2026-05-29T14:43:05Z")
> [@technocrat](#):
>
> This is standard IEEE 754 floating-point behavior
That may well be, but it does not make sense in my context (generating tables for a research paper). In that context, the `-0.0` is an unnecessary distraction.
I wish there was a package that would simply decompose a (binary) float to a bunch of digits (dumped into a `Vector{UInt8}` or similar), a decimal exponent, and a sign, then let the user deal with that for further processing. Of course the [_internals_ of Ryu in Base](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/tree/2045dc97e05c3c241fb0c4b29c211e6a404ee399/base/ryu) do exactly that, but it is not part of the API and has a different API.
---
### Author:  [@technocrat](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/technocrat)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/avoid-in-sprintf-1f-0-001/137334/5 "2026-05-29T20:00:44Z")
Of course, but the standard isn’t for strings. You’re right, though, that its a PITA when you have to go from a float to a string representation. I like your idea of decomposing.