pretty_num: Prettify big numbers into a readable format

In dfeR: Common Department for Education Analysis Tasks

Prettify big numbers into a readable format

Description

Uses as.numeric() to force a numeric value and then formats prettily for easy presentation in console messages, reports, or dashboards.

This rounds to 0 decimal places by default, and adds in comma separators.

Expect that this will commonly be used for adding the pound symbol, the percentage symbol, or to have a +/- prefixed based on the value.

If applying over multiple or unpredictable values and you want to preserve a non-numeric symbol such as "x" or "c" for data not available, use the ignore_na = TRUE argument to return those values unaffected.

If you want to customise what NA values are returned as, use the alt_na argument.

This function silences the warning around NAs being introduced by coercion.

Usage

pretty_num(
  value,
  prefix = "",
  gbp = FALSE,
  suffix = "",
  dp = 0,
  ignore_na = FALSE,
  alt_na = FALSE,
  nsmall = NULL,
  dynamic_dp_value = NULL,
  abbreviate = TRUE
)

Arguments

value	value to be prettified
prefix	prefix for the value, if "+/-" then it will automatically assign + or - based on the value
gbp	whether to add the pound symbol or not, defaults to not
suffix	suffix for the value, e.g. "%"
dp	number of decimal places to round to, 0 by default.
ignore_na	whether to skip function for strings that can't be converted and return original value
alt_na	alternative value to return in place of NA, e.g. "x"
nsmall	minimum number of digits to the right of the decimal point. If NULL, the value of dp will be used. If the value of dp is less than 0, then nsmall will automatically be set to 0.
dynamic_dp_value	Integer. Default = NULL. Overrides the dp setting and dynamically adjusts decimal places based on value magnitude. For values >= 1 million or >= 1 billion, the function checks the scaled value (e.g., value / 1e6 or value / 1e9): if the scaled value is a whole number, it sets decimal places to 0; otherwise, it adds precision as specified here. This approach improves clarity without unnecessary formatting.
abbreviate	whether to abbreviate large numbers to nearest million (where 1e6 <= value < 1e9) or billion (where value >= 1e9).

Value

string featuring prettified value

See Also

comma_sep() round_five_up() as.numeric()

Other prettying: pretty_filesize(), pretty_num_table(), pretty_time(), pretty_time_taken()

Examples

# On individual values
pretty_num(5789, gbp = TRUE)
pretty_num(564, prefix = "+/-")
pretty_num(567812343223, gbp = TRUE, prefix = "+/-")
pretty_num(11^9, gbp = TRUE, dp = 3)
pretty_num(-11^8, gbp = TRUE, dp = -1)
pretty_num(43.3, dp = 1, nsmall = 2)
pretty_num("56.089", suffix = "%")
pretty_num("x")
pretty_num("x", ignore_na = TRUE)
pretty_num("nope", alt_na = "x")
pretty_num(7.8e9, abbreviate = FALSE)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a billion value not divisible by 10
pretty_num(3e9, dynamic_dp_value = 2)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a billion value divisible by 10
pretty_num(10e9, dynamic_dp_value = 2)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a million value not divisible by 10
pretty_num(3e6, dynamic_dp_value = 3)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a million value divisible by 10
pretty_num(10e6, dynamic_dp_value = 3)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled with GBP and suffix
pretty_num(1.5e9,
  gbp = TRUE, suffix = "%",
  dynamic_dp_value = 1
)
#' # Applied over an example vector
vector <- c(3998098008, -123421421, "c", "x")
pretty_num(vector)
pretty_num(vector, prefix = "+/-", gbp = TRUE)

# Return original values if NA
pretty_num(vector, ignore_na = TRUE)

# Return alternative value in place of NA
pretty_num(vector, alt_na = "z")

dfeR documentation built on Sept. 24, 2026, 1:07 a.m.