Formatting numeric results (basic formatting)

People often struggle to use the right kind of numeric format specifiers. So here is the list of them once again (they can be found in any C# for beginners book) or on msdn.

C[n] - Currency
D[n] - Decimal
E[n] or e[n] - Exponent
F[n] - Fixed point
G[n] - General
N[n] - Number
X[n] or x[n] - Hex

n in all cases are the precision specifiers.

Examples - Compare various output when Console.WriteLine is used with an integer value.

Console.WriteLine("{0:C4}", 5);  //Output $5.0000
Console.WriteLine("{0:D4}", 5);  //Output 0005
Console.WriteLine("{0:E4}", 5);  //Output 5.0000E+000
Console.WriteLine("{0:F4}", 5);  //Output 5.0000
Console.WriteLine("{0:G4}", 5);  //Output 5
Console.WriteLine("{0:N4}", 5);  //Output 5.0000
Console.WriteLine("{0:X4}", 5);  //Output 0005

Comparision when Console.WriteLine is used with a double value.

double l = 5.00;
Console.WriteLine("{0:C4}", l);  //Output $5.0000
Console.WriteLine("{0:N4}", l);  //Output 5.000
Console.WriteLine("{0:G4}", l);  //Output 5
Console.WriteLine("{0:F4}", l);  //Output 5.000
Console.WriteLine("{0:F4}", l);  //Output 5.000

Cheers