0.000123456 shows as '1.23E−40' instead of '1.23E−4'

[rich-iannone]

Discussed in #614

^{Originally posted by marceloandrioni February 19, 2025}
Sorry if it's a very basic question, but it's my first time using great_tables.

I was trying to better format a very small number using:

from great_tables import vals

vals.fmt_scientific(0.000123456, n_sigfig=3, exp_style="E")
['1.23E−40']

But the exponent keeps showing an extra zero. Does someone can point me to the correct way of doing this?

Thank you.

This issue seems to stem from the use of exp_style= and values not using that arg are unaffected.

[jrycw]

great-tables/great_tables/_formats.py

Lines 841 to 848 in dc82197

	if _str_detect(n_part, "-"):
	n_part = _str_replace(n_part, "-", "")
	n_part = n_part.ljust(n_min_width, "0")
	n_part = "-" + n_part
	else:
	n_part = n_part.ljust(n_min_width, "0")
	if force_sign_n:
	n_part = "+" + n_part

It looks like the error is caused by the padding 0. Would using str.rjust() instead of str.ljust() help resolve the issue?