why does matlab store variables in workspace in engineering notation?

This is VERY annoying when you want to something simple like

simulationtime=max(y);

sim('model.mdl')

and you get an error: Invalid StopTime specified in the Configuration Parameters dialog for block diagram

because your simulation time is 6600

and matlab stores it in the workspace as 6.000e+03 !!!!!

Rajesh

[per isakson]

Distinguish between store and display

[Rajesh]

i dont mean display. for display i know i can use format to change the way it displays on the command window.

i mean store: how it is seen as stored in the workspace. when you click on simulationtime in the workspace you see it as 6.5e+03

Answer 1

[Rajesh]

 try 6508.79?

anyway for now i got around it by doing this:

simulationtime= double(max(y));

i dont know why simulink needs time to be in double data type. but seems it is how it is!

[Maddila]

but am not getting this,,,,i specified my variable value as double also,,,but not working outm,,,can you help me how to set stop time of simulation with incremmenting

Answer 2

[Daniel Shub]

It seems very odd that MATLAB would display 6600 as 6.000e+03. I am also not able to get MATLAB to display 6.000e+03 (maybe it is a Windows/Linux difference). That said, have you looked at format?

doc format

If you set the format to be long, maybe you will get what you want. Consider

format short
x = 60000.1

x =
 6.0000e+04

versus

format long
x = 60000.1

x =
   6.000010000000000e+04

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

The workspace has its own format control.

MATLAB (and Simulink) do not store data in decimal notation (except for Symbolic Toolbox, and sometimes Fixed Point Toolbox): they use binary, and in particular IEEE 754 double precision (usually) or single precision. Any representation similar to 6.5e+03 is a result of converting the binary storage mechanisms to decimal notation.