A (pretty common) nit to pick here: the 3 in %3.2f is not the number of digits before the decimal, it's the minimum total width of the resulting field, including the decimal. So if you really want 3 digits, a decimal and 2 digits, then you need %6.2f. This is a minimum and the digits to the left of the decimal will still be printed, so your example of 895.3 still appears to work (even though it would be better described as %5.1f), but try that in a table and you'll find that the column won't line up when another value is just 1.23 for instance.

For illustration, printf("%3.2f\n",$_) for (3.2,32.2,322.2) gives:

3.20
32.20
322.20
[download]

while printf("%6.2f\n",$_) for (3.2,32.2,322.2) gives:

  3.20
 32.20
322.20
[download]

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.