In addition to @Dani_Abalde’s comments, Grasshopper formats numeric values in the following ways:
- If the value is really close to an integer, it will display it as an integer, i.e. no radix and no decimals.
- If the value is close to a multiple of \pi, it will display it as such (this is all editable in the Preferences btw).
- If the value is very large (both positive and negative) or very small, scientific notation is used.
- If none of the above rules are in effect, then the value is rounded to six decimal places, at least one of which is shown, even if it is zero.
So when you see values that look like 4 it means that it in the range 4 plus or minus the integer cuttoff threshold. If the value looks like 4.0 then it differs more from 4 than the integer cutoff, but less than six decimal places. Maybe it’s 4.000000002, or 3.99999993.
To see the real value, you must use a custom formatting component with an {0:R} format flag. The R flag will ensure that no information is lost when formatting a number.
The way in which Grasshopper displays numbers was designed to strike a balance between most informative and most readable, but plenty of people have gotten confused by it over the years and I hope that I can come up with a much better scheme in future versions.