Understanding Numeric Data in VBScript
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VBScript—and programming in general—relies very heavily on numeric data. All computer data is stored and processed in binary (numeric) form. However, this data is not limited solely to binary. To properly understand how VBScript operates, it’s important to fully understand numeric data.
The two most common data subtypes in VBScript can be divided into two major categories: numeric and string. Numeric data types are interpreted as their name implies, as numbers. Strings, in most cases, consist of human readable alphanumeric characters.
The numeric types can again be divided into two major categories: fixed width and floating point. Fixed width numbers are whole numbers—positive or negative with no decimal points. Floating point numbers are numbers containing decimals and are representative of fractions.
Examples of fixed width numbers:
-1
0
478
-1063
1 x 1035
Examples of floating point numbers:
-1.025
25.64
-4789.256879
1 x 10-35
On most platforms, VBScript is able to make calculations using very large numbers. This, however, consumes a lot of memory depending upon the size of the numbers. For this reason, the different numeric data types were created to make the process more efficient.
Next: Numeric Subtypes and Precision >>
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