Electronics

E

Establishing the Decimal Point

A numerical value in RS-274D data has an integer and a decimal part, but the decimal point ('.') is not a valid RS-274D character. Thus, decimal values are written as a string of integers. The implicit position of the decimal point is determined by three parameters:

Number of integer digits (whole digits)

Number of decimal digits (precision)

Zero suppression.

For example: In a system with integer digits=n and decimal digits=m (an "n,m" system), a numerical value is written using (n+m) digits.

For example, in a "2,3" format the value 12.345 is written "12345". In a "2,4" format, the same value is written "123450".

Zero suppression comes in three flavors - leading, trailing and none. The idea of zero suppression is to reduce data file sizes by eliminating unneeded 0 characters. The simplest and most common form of zero suppression is leading zero suppression.

In a "2,4" format, with no zero suppression, the value 0.0100 would be 00 + 01000, written as "000100", but with leading zero suppression the same value is written as "100".

With trailing zero suppression the same value 0.0100 would be written as "0001".

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