A short function to convert numeric values to scientific notation, eg 0.013 –> 1.3 x 10^-2

scientific_notation.R

### define function for conversion to scientific notation of p-values or other numeric values
scientific_notation <- function (values, digits = 1) 
{
    if (!is.numeric(values)) {
      stop("values must be numbers")
    }
    if (grepl("^\\d{2}$", digits)) {
      stop("digits must a one or two digit whole number")
    }
    x <- sprintf(paste0("%.", digits, "e"), values)
    x <- gsub("e+", " x 10^", x)
    x <- ifelse(values == 0, 0, x) # if you are converting pvalues and the value is zero, this keeps it as zero
  x
}