How can one adjust the number of significant figures in displayed output of computation in one particular instance without change in global precision setting? N doesn’t seem to do the job:
N[{1193.3258943578567`, -1.4105256234179098`, 0.1297736143358147`}, 3]
Look at the documentation on NumberForm
I have some situation like this:
InputField[Dynamic[ww]]
Button["ok", ww = RandomReal[]]
Where the output of computation is feeded back into InputField line but because computation is done with high precision the Field’s line is flooded with digits, but I need it to display some approximate value. NumberForm doesn’t seem to work here.
I didn’t realize, it’s trivial: SetPrecision
But you said
How can one adjust the number of significant figures in displayed output
So it seems to be the right solution is to do formatting only, which only affect the display of the number on the output device. So as was suggested, you need to use one of Mathematica’s formatting functions. Another option is to use Style as in Style[x, PrintPrecision -> 3]