Exploit the maximum float32/float64 precision in exported txt formats

[jlblancoc]

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Corrected numeric formatting precision in PLY file exports with type-specific decimal and scientific notation
  • Updated TXT file exports with consistent formatting: 8 decimal places for coordinates and scientific notation for floating-point values

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[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR enhances numeric export formatting across two point cloud conversion tools. The mm2ply exporter introduces format-aware ASCII output by passing explicit format strings to a modified write_val lambda, while mm2txt applies consistent precision rules for coordinate and floating-point field output.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
PLY Exporter Formatting apps/mm2ply/main.cpp	Updated write_val lambda to accept a format string parameter and apply mrpt::format() for ASCII mode. All write calls now supply field-type-specific formats: FLOAT/DOUBLE use scientific notation, UINT types use integer/unsigned formats.
TXT Exporter Formatting apps/mm2txt/main.cpp	Applied consistent numeric precision: coordinates printed with 8 decimal places (%.8f), floating-point fields in scientific notation with 8 decimals (%.8e), and double fields with 16 significant digits (%.16le).

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• mm2txt and mm2ply now have a --export-fields flag #24: Modifies similar export data-writing logic in saveToPly/saveToTxt with format string handling.

Poem

🐰 ✨
Numbers dance in pristine rows,
Eight decimals—or sixteen—who knows?
Scientific notation flows so bright,
Your exports now formatted just right!
📊🎉

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 50.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: improving precision in exported text formats by using maximum float32/float64 precision with format strings.

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✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 0

Caution

Some comments are outside the diff and can’t be posted inline due to platform limitations.

⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

apps/mm2txt/main.cpp (1)

141-168: Fixed-point coord formatting can drop small values.

With %.8f on x/y/z (Line 144/148/152), values below ~1e-8 round to 0, which undermines the “max precision” goal and diverges from the %.8e used for other float fields. Consider using a scientific format (or %g) for coordinates too.

💡 Suggested change (use scientific format for coords)

-                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8f", xs.at(i));
+                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8e", xs.at(i));
...
-                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8f", ys.at(i));
+                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8e", ys.at(i));
...
-                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8f", zs.at(i));
+                mrpt::system::os::fprintf(f, "%.8e", zs.at(i));

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 77.03%. Comparing base (cebc610) to head (c6e1670).
⚠️ Report is 2 commits behind head on develop.

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff            @@
##           develop      #34   +/-   ##
========================================
  Coverage    77.03%   77.03%           
========================================
  Files          179      179           
  Lines         9526     9526           
  Branches       917      917           
========================================
  Hits          7338     7338           
  Misses        2188     2188           

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