Repository: pandas-dev/pandas (python)

Issue:
BUG: `pd.options.display.float_format` did not follow left side or before decimal places format 
### Pandas version checks

- [X] I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.

- [X] I have confirmed this bug exists on the [latest version](https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/whatsnew/index.html) of pandas.

- [ ] I have confirmed this bug exists on the [main branch](https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/dev/getting_started/install.html#installing-the-development-version-of-pandas) of pandas.


### Reproducible Example

```python
import pandas as pd

# Set the global float format
pd.options.display.float_format = '{:6.3f}'.format

# Example DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'A': [123.456, 789.1011],
    'B': [2.71828, 3.14159]
})

df
```


### Issue Description

Pandas `pd.options.display.float_format` did not follow left side or before decimal places format.

### Expected Behavior

If also follows the left side or before decimal places format. 

### Installed Versions

<details>

INSTALLED VERSIONS
------------------
commit                : d9cdd2ee5a58015ef6f4d15c7226110c9aab8140
python                : 3.10.11.final.0
python-bits           : 64
OS                    : Darwin
OS-release            : 23.6.0
Version               : Darwin Kernel Version 23.6.0: Mon Jul 29 21:14:21 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.141.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103
machine               : arm64
processor             : arm
byteorder             : little
LC_ALL                : None
LANG                  : None
LOCALE                : None.UTF-8

pandas                : 2.2.2
numpy                 : 1.26.4
pytz                  : 2024.1
dateutil              : 2.9.0.post0
setuptools            : 69.1.0
pip                   : 24.0
Cython                : None
pytest                : 8.1.1
hypothesis            : None
sphinx                : None
blosc                 : None
feather               : None
xlsxwriter            : None
lxml.etree            : None
html5lib              : None
pymysql               : None
psycopg2              : None
jinja2                : 3.1.3
IPython               : 8.23.0
pandas_datareader     : None
adbc-driver-postgresql: None
adbc-driver-sqlite    : None
bs4                   : None
bottleneck            : None
dataframe-api-compat  : None
fastparquet           : None
fsspec                : None
gcsfs                 : None
matplotlib            : 3.8.4
numba                 : None
numexpr               : None
odfpy                 : None
openpyxl              : 3.1.2
pandas_gbq            : None
pyarrow               : None
pyreadstat            : None
python-calamine       : None
pyxlsb                : None
s3fs                  : None
scipy                 : 1.11.4
sqlalchemy            : None
tables                : None
tabulate              : None
xarray                : None
xlrd                  : None
zstandard             : None
tzdata                : 2024.1
qtpy                  : None
pyqt5                 : None

</details>


Pull request:
BUG: fix nbsp for html formatting
- [x] closes #59876
- [x] [Tests added and passed](https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/dev/development/contributing_codebase.html#writing-tests) if fixing a bug or adding a new feature
- [x] All [code checks passed](https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/dev/development/contributing_codebase.html#pre-commit).

Fixes:
- Modified :class:HTMLFormatter._write_cell to escape regular spaces as &nbsp;, ensuring multiple spaces are preserved in the HTML output.


Patch:
diff --git a/pandas/io/formats/html.py b/pandas/io/formats/html.py
index adaeed017d..fdea1831d5 100644
--- a/pandas/io/formats/html.py
+++ b/pandas/io/formats/html.py
@@ -195,6 +195,8 @@ class HTMLFormatter:
             esc = {}
 
         rs = pprint_thing(s, escape_chars=esc).strip()
+        # replace spaces betweens strings with non-breaking spaces
+        rs = rs.replace("  ", "&nbsp;&nbsp;")
 
         if self.render_links and is_url(rs):
             rs_unescaped = pprint_thing(s, escape_chars={}).strip()


Test patch:
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_format.py b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_format.py
index 82cc3a838c..0dc16e1ebc 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_format.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_format.py
@@ -375,12 +375,29 @@ class TestDataFrameFormatting:
             (None, "{:.3f}", "None"),
             ("", "{:.2f}", ""),
             (112345.6789, "{:6.3f}", "112345.679"),
+            ("foo      foo", None, "foo&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;foo"),
+            (" foo", None, "foo"),
+            (
+                "foo foo       foo",
+                None,
+                "foo foo&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; foo",
+            ),  # odd no.of spaces
+            (
+                "foo foo    foo",
+                None,
+                "foo foo&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;foo",
+            ),  # even no.of spaces
         ],
     )
     def test_repr_float_formatting_html_output(
         self, data, format_option, expected_values
     ):
-        with option_context("display.float_format", format_option.format):
+        if format_option is not None:
+            with option_context("display.float_format", format_option.format):
+                df = DataFrame({"A": [data]})
+                html_output = df._repr_html_()
+                assert expected_values in html_output
+        else:
             df = DataFrame({"A": [data]})
             html_output = df._repr_html_()
             assert expected_values in html_output