S

The S (single-precision floating-point) format specification should be used where speed and/or floating point are required. S can be used with FORM for internal and external files. It is not available with FORM for display files and it cannot be used with full screen processing.

Input characteristics

Since S represents a floating-point number, any number with any amount of decimal positions will be accepted when S is specified. Rounding will not occur. A field length or number of decimal positions is never specified when S is coded. Business Rules four characters of storage for every S-formatted data item.

Output characteristics

All significant digits in S-formatted data will be output exactly as they were input.

Technical Considerations

1.) By definition, S is not portable. It is native to the floating-point format of the machine.

2.) S may be compatible with non-Business Rules files, specifically C files.

3.) D is machine dependent, but all machines should support 10e+-38 with up to 7 digits of precision.

See Also

As a screen attribute, S refers to Sunken Appearance.