How to go about formatting 1200 to 1.2k in java

Here a solution that makes use of DecimalFormat's engineering notation:

public static void main(String args[]) {
    long[] numbers = new long[]{7, 12, 856, 1000, 5821, 10500, 101800, 2000000, 7800000, 92150000, 123200000, 9999999};
    for(long number : numbers) {
        System.out.println(number + " = " + format(number));
    }
}

private static String[] suffix = new String[]{"","k", "m", "b", "t"};
private static int MAX_LENGTH = 4;

private static String format(double number) {
    String r = new DecimalFormat("##0E0").format(number);
    r = r.replaceAll("E[0-9]", suffix[Character.getNumericValue(r.charAt(r.length() - 1)) / 3]);
    while(r.length() > MAX_LENGTH || r.matches("[0-9]+\\.[a-z]")){
        r = r.substring(0, r.length()-2) + r.substring(r.length() - 1);
    }
    return r;
}

Output:

7 = 7
12 = 12
856 = 856
1000 = 1k
5821 = 5.8k
10500 = 10k
101800 = 102k
2000000 = 2m
7800000 = 7.8m
92150000 = 92m
123200000 = 123m
9999999 = 10m

Need some improvement, but: StrictMath to the rescue!
You can put the suffix in a String or array and fetch'em based on power, or something like that.
The division can also be managed around the power, i think almost everything is about the power value. Hope it helps!

public static String formatValue(double value) {
int power; 
    String suffix = " kmbt";
    String formattedNumber = "";

    NumberFormat formatter = new DecimalFormat("#,###.#");
    power = (int)StrictMath.log10(value);
    value = value/(Math.pow(10,(power/3)*3));
    formattedNumber=formatter.format(value);
    formattedNumber = formattedNumber + suffix.charAt(power/3);
    return formattedNumber.length()>4 ?  formattedNumber.replaceAll("\\.[0-9]+", "") : formattedNumber;  
}

outputs:

999
1.2k
98k
911k
1.1m
11b
712b
34t

I know, this looks more like a C program, but it's super lightweight!

public static void main(String args[]) {
    long[] numbers = new long[]{1000, 5821, 10500, 101800, 2000000, 7800000, 92150000, 123200000, 9999999};
    for(long n : numbers) {
        System.out.println(n + " => " + coolFormat(n, 0));
    }
}

private static char[] c = new char[]{'k', 'm', 'b', 't'};

/**
 * Recursive implementation, invokes itself for each factor of a thousand, increasing the class on each invokation.
 * @param n the number to format
 * @param iteration in fact this is the class from the array c
 * @return a String representing the number n formatted in a cool looking way.
 */
private static String coolFormat(double n, int iteration) {
    double d = ((long) n / 100) / 10.0;
    boolean isRound = (d * 10) %10 == 0;//true if the decimal part is equal to 0 (then it's trimmed anyway)
    return (d < 1000? //this determines the class, i.e. 'k', 'm' etc
        ((d > 99.9 || isRound || (!isRound && d > 9.99)? //this decides whether to trim the decimals
         (int) d * 10 / 10 : d + "" // (int) d * 10 / 10 drops the decimal
         ) + "" + c[iteration]) 
        : coolFormat(d, iteration+1));

}

It outputs:

1000 => 1k
5821 => 5.8k
10500 => 10k
101800 => 101k
2000000 => 2m
7800000 => 7.8m
92150000 => 92m
123200000 => 123m
9999999 => 9.9m

Here is a solution that works for any long value and that I find quite readable (the core logic is done in the bottom three lines of the format method).

It leverages TreeMap to find the appropriate suffix. It is surprisingly more efficient than a previous solution I wrote that was using arrays and was more difficult to read.

private static final NavigableMap<Long, String> suffixes = new TreeMap<> ();
static {
  suffixes.put(1_000L, "k");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000L, "M");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000L, "G");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000L, "T");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000_000L, "P");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000_000_000L, "E");
}

public static String format(long value) {
  //Long.MIN_VALUE == -Long.MIN_VALUE so we need an adjustment here
  if (value == Long.MIN_VALUE) return format(Long.MIN_VALUE + 1);
  if (value < 0) return "-" + format(-value);
  if (value < 1000) return Long.toString(value); //deal with easy case

  Entry<Long, String> e = suffixes.floorEntry(value);
  Long divideBy = e.getKey();
  String suffix = e.getValue();

  long truncated = value / (divideBy / 10); //the number part of the output times 10
  boolean hasDecimal = truncated < 100 && (truncated / 10d) != (truncated / 10);
  return hasDecimal ? (truncated / 10d) + suffix : (truncated / 10) + suffix;
}

---

Test code

public static void main(String args[]) {
  long[] numbers = {0, 5, 999, 1_000, -5_821, 10_500, -101_800, 2_000_000, -7_800_000, 92_150_000, 123_200_000, 9_999_999, 999_999_999_999_999_999L, 1_230_000_000_000_000L, Long.MIN_VALUE, Long.MAX_VALUE};
  String[] expected = {"0", "5", "999", "1k", "-5.8k", "10k", "-101k", "2M", "-7.8M", "92M", "123M", "9.9M", "999P", "1.2P", "-9.2E", "9.2E"};
  for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
    long n = numbers[i];
    String formatted = format(n);
    System.out.println(n + " => " + formatted);
    if (!formatted.equals(expected[i])) throw new AssertionError("Expected: " + expected[i] + " but found: " + formatted);
  }
}