number of displayed decimal places

[Vojin Jovanovic]

I would like to know if one can control the number of displayed decimal
places in Python similarly to what one can do in MATLAB

for example

EDU» a=1.12345678901234567890123456789

a =

   1.12345678901235  ///default is to display 14 decimal places which is the
precision of the calculation

EDU» format short    ///but the number of decimal places that is displayed
can be changed
EDU» a

a =

    1.1235

EDU» format long
EDU» a

a =

   1.12345678901235   //// without changing the precision of the
calculations

Now, I know that Python can control the outputs with print  %f  and so on
...  but it would be more useful if one can somehow set the number of
displayed decimal places in the beginning.

Vin