Convert float to string without scientific notation and false precision

I want to print some floating point numbers so that they're always written in decimal form (e.g. 12345000000000000000000.0 or 0.000000000000012345, not in scientific notation, yet I'd want to keep the 15.7 decimal digits of precision and no more.

It is well-known that the repr of a float is written in scientific notation if the exponent is greater than 15, or less than -4:

>>> n = 0.000000054321654321
>>> n
5.4321654321e-08  # scientific notation

If str is used, the resulting string again is in scientific notation:

>>> str(n)
'5.4321654321e-08'

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It has been suggested that I can use format with f flag and sufficient precision to get rid of the scientific notation:

>>> format(0.00000005, '.20f')
'0.00000005000000000000'

It works for that number, though it has some extra trailing zeroes. But then the same format fails for .1, which gives decimal digits beyond the actual machine precision of float:

>>> format(0.1, '.20f')
'0.10000000000000000555'

And if my number is 4.5678e-20, using .20f would still lose relative precision:

>>> format(4.5678e-20, '.20f')
'0.00000000000000000005'

Thus these approaches do not match my requirements.

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This leads to the question: what is the easiest and also well-performing way to print arbitrary floating point number in decimal format, having the same digits as in repr(n) (or str(n) on Python 3), but always using the decimal format, not the scientific notation.

That is, a function or operation that for example converts the float value 0.00000005 to string '0.00000005'; 0.1 to '0.1'; 420000000000000000.0 to '420000000000000000.0' or 420000000000000000 and formats the float value -4.5678e-5 as '-0.000045678'.

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After the bounty period: It seems that there are at least 2 viable approaches, as Karin demonstrated that using string manipulation one can achieve significant speed boost compared to my initial algorithm on Python 2.

Thus,

• If performance is important and Python 2 compatibility is required; or if the decimal module cannot be used for some reason, then Karin's approach using string manipulation is the way to do it.
• On Python 3, my somewhat shorter code will also be faster.

Since I am primarily developing on Python 3, I will accept my own answer, and shall award Karin the bounty.

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