Convert floating point numbers to user defined output using AWK - linux

Question

I am trying to convert floating point numbers (columns) from a text file to the user defined output using awk, e-01 -> $\exp 10^{-01}$
Test input:
1.2e-01
1.8e-02
1.12e-03
1.222e+04
1.23e+05
441.2e+05
221.2e+06
Expect results
1.2$\exp 10^{-01}$
1.8$\exp 10^{-02}$
1.12$\exp 10^{-03}$
1.222$\exp 10^{+04}$
1.23$\exp 10^{+05}$
441.2$\exp 10^{+05}$
221.2$\exp 10^{+06}$
I have used the following command "awk '{printf "%.4e\n", $1}'", which does not solve this problem.
Any help would be really appreciated.

Answer 1

You may use this simple sed substitution with a capturing group and a back-reference:
sed -E 's/e([+-][0-9]+)/$\\exp 10^{\1}$/' file
1.2$\exp 10^{-01}$
1.8$\exp 10^{-02}$
1.12$\exp 10^{-03}$
1.222$\exp 10^{+04}$
1.23$\exp 10^{+05}$
441.2$\exp 10^{+05}$
221.2$\exp 10^{+06}$

Answer 2

Could you please try following, written and tested with shown samples only in GNU awk.
awk '{sub(/ +$/,"");sub(/e/,"$\\exp ");sub(/[-+]/,"10^{&");$0=$0"}$"} 1' Input_file
Explanation: Adding detailed explanation for above.
awk ' ##Starting awk program from here.
{
sub(/ +$/,"") ##Substituting space at last of line with NULL in each line.
sub(/e/,"$\\exp ") ##Substituting e with $\\exp in current line.
sub(/[-+]/,"10^{&") ##Substituting either - or + with 10^{ with matched - or +
$0=$0"}$" ##Appending }$ at current line.
}
1 ##1 will print current line.
' Input_file ##Mentioning Input_file name here.

Answer 3

I would treat input as text and do two subsequent replacements, namely:
awk '{$0=gensub("e", "$\\\\exp 10^", 1); $0=gensub("(-|+)([0-9]+)[[:blank:]]+", "{\\1\\2}$", 1); print}' file.txt
Let file.txt be:
1.2e-01
1.8e-02
1.12e-03
1.222e+04
1.23e+05
441.2e+05
221.2e+06
then output is:
1.2$\exp 10^{-01}$
1.8$\exp 10^{-02}$
1.12$\exp 10^{-03}$
1.222$\exp 10^{+04}$
1.23$\exp 10^{+05}$
441.2$\exp 10^{+05}$
221.2$\exp 10^{+06}$
Explanation: I alter whole line ($0), firstly I replace e with $\exp 10^ (\ needs to be escaped), secondly I search for sign (- or +) followed by (one or more digits) followed by one or more space or tab, which I replace with {signdigits}$. Finally I print altered line.