Round to n significant digits

Question

I am trying to write code in MATLAB that will round a number to specific (as I ask) significant digits.

I am not sure how to do this. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

To round to d significant digits :

>> d = 3; %// number of digits
>> x = 5.237234; %// example number

>> D = 10^(d-ceil(log10(x)));
>> y = round(x*D)/D
y =
    5.2400

To round to d decimal digits :

>> d = 3; %// number of digits
>> x = 5.237234; %// example number

>> D = 10^d;
>> y = round(x*D)/D
y =
    5.2370

EDIT

This is actually simpler: the function roundsupports the following parameters:

>> d = 3;
>> x = 5.237234;
>> y = round(x, d, 'significant')
y =
    5.2400

>> d = 3;
>> x = 5.237234;
>> y = round(x, d) %// or y = round(x, d, 'decimals')
y =
    5.2370