Always show the exponent and SI units of a numeric regardless of indicator/control width

[Intaris]

Inspired by

THIS
 and

THIS

I would like to suggest always showing the exponent of a numerical value in a contro or indicator regardless of the data format chosen.

We've all been confused by dispalys of near-zero numbers hiding the exponent, haven't we?  The exponent is arguably more important than the integer art for certain applications so I vote it should always be displayed.

While we're at it, the same should be true for SI units cush as "m" or "M"

Obviously colours and display details would have to be discussed, but personally I would love to have this feature.  Being able to click on the SI unit and change it during run-time would also be amazing!!

Shane.

[Intaris]

A logical addition to the second part of this idea would be the ability to LOCK a display to a particular SI unit (m, u, n, k, M) for display.

SI display is cool but when numbers are jumping around between 1u and 0.999n it makes for a very nervous operator.  Fixing the unit displayed (and used for entry!) would be übercool.

[johnsold]

Perhaps this should be a new formatting option, one which could be made default for those who want it. If implemented this way, it would not change older VIs where users had become accustomed to the current appearance.

Lynn

[Intaris]

Oh, I agree it should not be on by default.  Messing with old code is never a good idea.....

[James_McN]

+1,000,000 kudos if I could 

[altenbach]

Maybe the mantissa can be shortened similarly to the already implemented idea to truncate long paths.

e.g. -5.69423E-16 would turn into -5.6..E-16 in a smaller indicator.

I think it would be mostly sufficient to solve the problem for the default indicator width, which seems to truncate the exponent if the value is close to zero, giving misleading information to the operator. (example)

Alternatively, there should be an indication that not everything is shown, similar to my comment here.