You are running into the old problem with floating point numbers that not all numbers can be represented exactly. The command line is just showing you the full floating point form from memory.
With floating point representation, your rounded version is the same number. Since computers are binary, they store floating point numbers as an integer and then divide it by a power of two so 13.95 will be represented in a similar fashion to 125650429603636838/(2**53).
Double precision numbers have 53 bits (16 digits) of precision and regular floats have 24 bits (8 digits) of precision. The floating point type in Python uses double precision to store the values.
For example,
>>> 125650429603636838/(2**53)
13.949999999999999
>>> 234042163/(2**24)
13.949999988079071
>>> a = 13.946
>>> print(a)
13.946
>>> print("%.2f" % a)
13.95
>>> round(a,2)
13.949999999999999
>>> print("%.2f" % round(a, 2))
13.95
>>> print("{:.2f}".format(a))
13.95
>>> print("{:.2f}".format(round(a, 2)))
13.95
>>> print("{:.15f}".format(round(a, 2)))
13.949999999999999
If you are after only two decimal places (to display a currency value, for example), then you have a couple of better choices:
- Use integers and store values in cents, not dollars and then divide by 100 to convert to dollars.
- Or use a fixed point number like decimal.
Top answer 1 of 16
2331
You are running into the old problem with floating point numbers that not all numbers can be represented exactly. The command line is just showing you the full floating point form from memory.
With floating point representation, your rounded version is the same number. Since computers are binary, they store floating point numbers as an integer and then divide it by a power of two so 13.95 will be represented in a similar fashion to 125650429603636838/(2**53).
Double precision numbers have 53 bits (16 digits) of precision and regular floats have 24 bits (8 digits) of precision. The floating point type in Python uses double precision to store the values.
For example,
>>> 125650429603636838/(2**53)
13.949999999999999
>>> 234042163/(2**24)
13.949999988079071
>>> a = 13.946
>>> print(a)
13.946
>>> print("%.2f" % a)
13.95
>>> round(a,2)
13.949999999999999
>>> print("%.2f" % round(a, 2))
13.95
>>> print("{:.2f}".format(a))
13.95
>>> print("{:.2f}".format(round(a, 2)))
13.95
>>> print("{:.15f}".format(round(a, 2)))
13.949999999999999
If you are after only two decimal places (to display a currency value, for example), then you have a couple of better choices:
- Use integers and store values in cents, not dollars and then divide by 100 to convert to dollars.
- Or use a fixed point number like decimal.
2 of 16
838
There are new format specifications, String Format Specification Mini-Language:
You can do the same as:
"{:.2f}".format(13.949999999999999)
Note 1: the above returns a string. In order to get as float, simply wrap with float(...):
float("{:.2f}".format(13.949999999999999))
Note 2: wrapping with float() doesn't change anything:
>>> x = 13.949999999999999999
>>> x
13.95
>>> g = float("{:.2f}".format(x))
>>> g
13.95
>>> x == g
True
>>> h = round(x, 2)
>>> h
13.95
>>> x == h
True
Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › how to use the float() command to create 2 decimal places instead of one in a product of 2 numbers [the product is dollar amount]
r/learnpython on Reddit: How to use the float() command to create 2 decimal places instead of one in a product of 2 numbers [the product is dollar amount]
January 28, 2020 -
Example:
hourlyRate = 20 hoursLabor = 1.6
I want the answer to show “32.00” instead of “32” or “32.0”.
What I have so far produces the number 32.0:
totalPay = float(hourlyRate * hoursLabor)
print(totalPay)
I’m obviously very new at this. Just getting some beginner’s practice :)
Top answer 1 of 2
10
You generally don't round until you go to display the value. You can use round for that, but since you just want to display it with two digits, you can use string formatting . In your case, something like print(f'{totalPay:.2f}'). .2f is the format specifier, saying round the float (f) to two decimal places (.2).
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4
This should do it print(f'{totalPay:.2f}')
python - How to display a float with two decimal places? - Stack Overflow
I have a function taking float arguments (generally integers or decimals with one significant digit), and I need to output the values in a string with two decimal places (5 → 5.00, 5.5 → 5.50, etc)... More on stackoverflow.com
floating point - Python, print all floats to 2 decimal places in output - Stack Overflow
I need to output 4 different floats to two decimal places. This is what I have: print '%.2f' % var1,'kg =','%.2f' % var2,'lb =','%.2f' % var3,'gal =','%.2f' % var4,'l' Which is very unclean, and ... More on stackoverflow.com
how do I limit the amount of decimal values stored in a float variable?
First, if you are not displaying it anywhere, do not do anything. There is no need to unnecessarily reduce accuracy. You are not hurting anything by having extra decimal places. But if you are and want to format it, well, that's just formatting like this https://appdividend.com/2022/06/23/how-to-format-float-values-in-python/ More on reddit.com
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1
November 20, 2022how to limit or round a float to only two decimals without rounding up
You can try the solution here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/62435913 More on reddit.com
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5
March 8, 2024Videos
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How to Limit Floats to Two Decimal Points in Python? - YouTube
Python Print Float With 2 Decimals
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Python Programming – Print A Float with Two Decimal Places - YouTube
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Python Tutorial 17 Formatting floats integers numbers to 2 decimal ...
freeCodeCamp
forum.freecodecamp.org › python
Floating point numbers to two decimal places - possible with standard lib? - Python - The freeCodeCamp Forum
August 24, 2022 - I’m trying to get 2 decimal places of 0s (e.g, 9.00) in the budget app project. I tried using string formatting, but the program expects a floating point number, not a string. Casting it to a float results in a single .0 because that’s how floating point numbers work in Python - that gets ...
Python Guides
pythonguides.com › python-print-2-decimal-places
How to Print Two Decimal Places in Python
December 22, 2025 - # Monthly subscription cost for ... the :.2f is the magic part. The colon starts the format specifier, the .2 indicates two decimal places, and the f tells Python to treat the value as a float....
Top answer 1 of 13
399
Since this post might be here for a while, lets also point out python 3 syntax:
"{:.2f}".format(5)
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206
You could use the string formatting operator for that:
>>> '%.2f' % 1.234
'1.23'
>>> '%.2f' % 5.0
'5.00'
The result of the operator is a string, so you can store it in a variable, print etc.
PythonHow
pythonhow.com › how › limit-floats-to-two-decimal-points
Here is how to limit floats to two decimal points in Python
The format string specifies the desired formatting for the value, and the {:.2f} syntax specifies that the value should be formatted as a float with two decimal points. Both round and format can be used to limit floats to a fixed number of decimal points in Python.
AskPython
askpython.com › home › how to format a number to 2 decimal places in python?
How to Format a Number to 2 Decimal Places in Python? - AskPython
February 27, 2023 - You can show the result using %f formatted, written inside quotation marks, and the % modulo operator separates it from the float number “%f” % num. Also, using str.format() is simple, where you have to write within the curly braces how many places you want after the decimal followed by the variable name in the format function. Here’s the official Python documentation to help you understand decimal in Python.
Analytics Vidhya
analyticsvidhya.com › home › 6 ways to round floating value to two decimals in python
6 Ways to Round Floating Value to Two Decimals in Python
November 4, 2024 - However, modern formatting methods ... To format a floating-point number with two decimal places in Python, you can use the .2f format specifier....
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › how-to-get-two-decimal-places-in-python
How to get two decimal places in Python - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - The % operator can also be used to get two decimal places in Python. It is a more traditional approach which makes the use of string formatting technique. ... Python math module provides various function that can be used to perform various ...
w3resource
w3resource.com › python-exercises › string › python-data-type-string-exercise-30.php
Python: Print the following floating numbers upto 2 decimal places - w3resource
June 12, 2025 - ... # Define a variable 'x' and assign it the value 3.1415926 (a floating-point number). x = 3.1415926 # Define a variable 'y' and assign it the value 12.9999 (a floating-point number).
Sololearn
sololearn.com › en › Discuss › 3288381 › how-to-round-to-2-decimal-places-in-python
How to round to 2 decimal places in python | Sololearn: Learn to code for FREE!
Yes, you can use the round() function in Python to round a float to a specific number of decimal places. In your case, you can use round(number, 2) to round the number to 2 decimal places.
Top answer 1 of 8
103
Well I would atleast clean it up as follows:
print "%.2f kg = %.2f lb = %.2f gal = %.2f l" % (var1, var2, var3, var4)
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Format String Syntax.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatstrings
from math import pi
var1, var2, var3, var4 = pi, pi*2, pi*3, pi*4
'{:0.2f}, kg={:0.2f}, lb={:0.2f}, gal={:0.2f}'.format(var1, var2, var3, var4)
The output would be:
'3.14, kg=6.28, lb=9.42, gal=12.57'
Spark By {Examples}
sparkbyexamples.com › home › python › python limit floats to two decimal points
Python Limit Floats to Two Decimal Points - Spark By {Examples}
May 31, 2024 - # Quick examples of limiting floats to two decimal points # Example 1: Using the round() function rounded_num = round(num, 2) print(rounded_num) # Example 2: Using string formatting rounded_num = "{:.2f}".format(num) print(rounded_num) # Example ...
TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › How-to-display-a-float-with-two-decimal-places-in-Python
How to display a float with two decimal places in Python?
December 7, 2022 - Use the ceil() function(returns a ceiling value of the number i.e., the smallest integer greater than or equal to the number), to round the number upto the 2 decimal places and print the resultant number.
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › how-to-round-floating-value-to-two-decimals-in-python
How to Round Floating Value to Two Decimals in Python - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - In Python, we can use the decimal module to round floating-point numbers to a specific number of decimal places with higher precision and control compared to the built-in floating-point arithmetic. ... from decimal import Decimal, getcontext, ROUND_HALF_UP # Step 1: Create a Decimal object from a floating-point number n1 = Decimal('123.4567') # Step 2: Define the rounding context # '0.01' specifies that we want to round to two decimal places n2 = n1.quantize(Decimal('0.01'), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP) print(n2)...
CodeRivers
coderivers.org › blog › python-print-float-with-2-decimals
Python Print Float with 2 Decimals - CodeRivers
April 14, 2025 - To round a floating-point number to 2 decimal places, you can use it as follows: float_number = 3.14159 rounded_number = round(float_number, 2) print(rounded_number) In this example, the round() function takes two arguments: the number to be rounded (float_number) and the number of digits to ...
freeCodeCamp
freecodecamp.org › news › 2f-in-python-what-does-it-mean
%.2f in Python – What does it Mean?
June 22, 2022 - You can play around with the code to see what happens as you change the number in the formatter. Another formatting method we can use with floating point numbers in Python is the %d formatter.
Quora
quora.com › In-Python-how-could-I-convert-a-float-with-one-decimal-place-into-a-float-with-two-decimal-places-for-example-24-3-to-24-30
In Python, how could I convert a float with one decimal place into a float with two decimal places (for example, 24.3 to 24.30)? - Quora
Answer (1 of 4): You don't convert floats like that. You really mean how to PRINT numbers in different formats. In current Python: x = 24.3 (in the computer, x has at least 10 decimal places) print(f"[x:4.2f]”) !!!!! This keyboard does not have the braces key …. use braces instead of [ ] !!!...
Python Shiksha
python.shiksha › home › tips › 3 python ways to limit float up to two decimal places
3 Python ways to Limit float up to two decimal places - Python Shiksha
July 18, 2021 - b= 25.7587852 c=19.568231469 print(round(b,2)) print(round(c,2)) ... Pretty simple and a go-to method in order to constraint our floats up to two decimal places. If you come from a C language background, then you must be very familiar with using ...
Studytonight
studytonight.com › python-howtos › how-to-round-floating-value-to-two-decimals-in-python
How to Round Floating Value to Two Decimals in Python - Studytonight
January 21, 2021 - This precision takes the total number of digits to be printed. If prec = 2, then the output would be 2.3. The behavior of round() for floats can be surprising. For example, round(2.675, 2) gives 2.67 instead of the expected 2.68.