round to nearest nice number

Question

I\'m writing an application which requires rounding labels to the nearest \'nice\' number. I\'ll put some code below to demonstrate this, but my issue is that I was using a ser

Answer 1

You can use Math.log10 to normalize all values before doing your "nice number" search, something like this:

[Edit] I just realized you are using Java instead of C#, so I modified the code a bit. I don't have a compiler around to test it, but you should get the general idea anyway:

static double getNicerNumber(double val)
{
    // get the first larger power of 10
    var nice = Math.pow(10, Math.ceiling(Math.log10(val)));

    // scale the power to a "nice enough" value
    if (val < 0.25 * nice)
        nice = 0.25 * nice;
    else if (val < 0.5 * nice)
        nice = 0.5 * nice;

    return nice;
}

// test program:
static void main(string[] args)
{
    double[] values = 
    {
        0.1, 0.2, 0.7,
        1, 2, 9,
        25, 58, 99,
        158, 267, 832
    };

    for (var val : values)
        System.out.printf("$%.2f --> $%.2f%n", val, getNicerNumber(val));
}

This will print something like:

0,1 --> 0,1
0,2 --> 0,25
0,7 --> 1
1 --> 1
2 --> 2,5
9 --> 10
25 --> 50
58 --> 100
99 --> 100
158 --> 250
267 --> 500
832 --> 1000