Calculator no longer handles scientific notation properly

[taipingli]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.69.1

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

No

Area(s) with issue?

PowerToys Run

Steps to reproduce

Entering into the calculator through PowerToys Run any of the following:
=1e3
=10e3 + 5
=1e-3

✔️ Expected Behavior

=1e3 = 1000
=10e3 + 5 = 10005
=1e-3 = 0.001

❌ Actual Behavior

=1e3 = Failed to calculate the input - Expression wrong or incomplete (did you forget some parentheses?)
=10e3 + 5 = Failed to calculate the input - Expression wrong or incomplete (did you forget some parentheses?)
=1e-3 = -0.2817181715

Other Software

No response

[taipingli]

I think this issue may be caused by the changes in #24655? On another computer with 0.68.1, I see the expected behavior with Powertoys Run when entering anything with scientific notation in the form of XeY, where X and Y are both numbers.

[tillfalko]

It seems that e is now always parsed as the mathematical constant.
It should be possible to syntactically infer whether scientific notation or the constant is intended with e.
Alternatively scientific notation could be invoked with an upper case E, which is unused, and what most scientific calculators display anyways.

[viggyd]

I agree with tillfalko, the scientific notation typically follows a <number>e<number> with no spaces between, which should be easy enough to check.

I'm thinking in the FixHumanMultiplicationExpressions, you can add a new function, maybe something like CheckScientificNotation, that replaces "(\d+)[eE]([-]*\d+)" with "$1 * 10^($2)". The replacement removes the e from the expression, preventing it from being used as a constant. It also supports either capital or lowercase e for use in scientific notation.

I can probably get something out by the end of the week if no one else is working on it

[Jay-o-Way]

Okay, so the problem is that there are three possible interpretations for numbers like 8e3, 12e-2 and so on. The "E" could be the constant, the denominator for the scientific notation, or the number can be hexadecimal. Without context, there really is no way to tell. This is a big issue that needs to be solved first. This is exactly why the Calculator app has modes: to set the context.

input	const	scientific	HEXtoDEC
8e3	≈ 65.2388...	8'000	227510
12e-2	≈ 30.619...	0.0012	30010

Another example: 8B could be hexadecimal for 139, or in common use could also mean 8 Billion.

[jaimecbernardo]

This has been worked on during the 0.77 Release sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest release: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

[abegertler]

Oh my gosh, wonderful!!! : ))) thank you so much everyone : ) especially @viggyd

it works : ) 7E3 = 7000 : )

This has been worked on during the 0.77 Release sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest release: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases