Numbers
You can enter whole and decimal numbers as you would expect. Separators can be included in large numbers like the comma in 10,000 to make numbers easier to read. By default, these thousands separators will be inserted automatically as you type a number.
42 + 12
2.5 - .7
23,000 + 50054
1.8
23,500NOTE
To change what character to use as a thousands separator, go toSystem Preferences > Language & Region and click the Advanced buttonNOTE
To change whether separators should be automatically inserted as you type a number, go toPreferences > Editing > AutomationShortened Notation
Large and small numbers can be tedious to type, so Figures includes a few ways to make this easier. You can use common names for these numbers like million or billion, called cardinal names. You can also use a metric symbol after the number as a shortcut. For example, 5k is the same as 5,000.
20 million × 3
500 tenths + 1 tenth
5k + 5 hundred
2M meters
5T + 200G
5 mega
5M60 million
50.1
5,500
2 million m
5.2 trillion
5
5 millionNOTE
These examples and the table below use short cardinal names (most common). Figures also supports long cardinal names if you prefer. Go toPreferences > Format > Region to change which scale to use.Here are the cardinal names and prefixes supported by Figures:
| Cardinal name | Metric prefix | Symbol | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| septillion | yotta | Y | 10²⁴ |
| sextillion | zetta | Z | 10²¹ |
| quintillion | exa | E | 10¹⁸ |
| quadrillion | peta | P | 10¹⁵ |
| trillion | tera | T | 10¹² |
| billion | giga | G | 10⁹ |
| million | mega | M | 10⁶ |
| thousand | kilo | k | 10³ |
| hundred | — | — | 10² |
| tenth | — | — | 10⁻¹ |
| hundredth | — | — | 10⁻² |
| thousandth | — | — | 10⁻³ |
| millionth | micro | μ | 10⁻⁶ |
| billionth | nano | n | 10⁻⁹ |
| trillionth | pico | p | 10⁻¹² |
| quadrillionth | femto | f | 10⁻¹⁵ |
| quintillionth | atto | a | 10⁻¹⁸ |
| sextillionth | zepto | z | 10⁻²¹ |
| septillionth | yocto | y | 10⁻²⁴ |
NOTE
Some metric symbols near zero aren't supported because they're uncommon and have conflicts. For example, the symbol forthousandth is m which could be confused with the symbol for meters.NOTE
Metric prefix names likekilo and micro are used with units to change their scale (e.g. kilometers or microliters). They're included here to show what the symbols stand for, but they can't be used with numbers by themselves. Use the symbol instead. See Units for more on using metric prefixes.