Assign scientific notation to variable in Python

Question

I am trying to ask for a float variable, then assign its scientific notation to it and then use that notation in the following operations. As in, I want the program to actually work with the notation, not just return the results in it. I managed to convert variable by using the print function:

def estim(abs(x)):
    a=print("{:.3e}".format(x))
    return a

However that does not actually assign the scientific value to x. I then tried

b=float(a)

but a is None type, so it doesn't work. Any help?

Edit: by scientific notation I mean X.YYYe+Z, example: 31234.34234 -> 3.12e+04

Answer 1

If you do "{:.3e}".format(x) you will get 3 digits after decimal, that is

>>> a = 31234.34234
>>> "{:.3e}".format(a)
'3.123e+04'

To get what you want, you need to do "{:.2e}".format(x).

>>> "{:.2e}".format(a)
'3.12e+04'
>>> float("{:.2e}".format(a))
31200.0

Converting it back to float will give you the original value

As a function

def estim(x):
    x = abs(x)
    a=("{:.2e}".format(x))
    print(a)
    return a

Tip:

You can use % (It might be deprecated)

>>> a = 31234.34234
>>> "%e"%a
'3.123434e+04'