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.