Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 17:51:25 +0100
Reply-To: John Whittington <johnw@MAG-NET.CO.UK>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: John Whittington <johnw@MAG-NET.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Formatting Significant Digits
On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, TWB2%Rates%FAR@GO50.COMP.PGE.COM wrote:
>John, Thanks! I stared and stared trying to see WHERE your solution
>rounded to 4 digits before I finally realized the E10 had one sign digit
>on the value, one sign digit on the exponent, the 'E' and a two digit
>exponent, leaving space for four digits and a decimal point in the
>mantissa. Cool!
You're welcome, Tim. To be frank, I arrived at the E10. by trial and error
- before subsequently rationalising it in the same manner as you. Someone
asked me what I would have done had you asked for 6 significant figures -
and the answer, of course, is that I would have used E12.
I have a feeling that things would go very wrong if one got into a 3 figure
exponent (if that is possible) - but it's an unlikely practical situation.
>I do not understand how this avoids the problem I had
>of my rounded values mutating when I stored them--perhaps I was working
>too late last night. Again, thanks!
I confess that I didn't give too much thought to the reason why your method
failed - since I preferred the concept of my approach :-) However, I'll
give it a little thought, just out of interest!
John
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