Number Systems and Formats
Never include commas, dollar signs, or formatting symbols when specifying numbers. Only the digits 0-9 and the characters +, -, and the decimal point are valid numeric symbols (exponential notation also uses the letter “E” or “e”).
Rounding and Precision
The manner in which integers and floats are stored and manipulated by computers limits their maximum range and precision.
Display Precision
Director performs all floating-point calculations to 15 significant digits. Floating-point values are never permanently rounded, but are merely displayed rounded to the number of decimal places specified by the floatPrecision
. Refer to "Float Truncation" later in this chapter for tips on avoiding errors due to the quirks of floating-point math.
set the floatPrecision = 4 put pi -- 3.1416 set the floatPrecision = 15 put pi -- 3.141592653589790 put 5.12345678901234567 -- 5.123456789012350
Numbers Out of Range
The maximum floating-point number is approximately +/-1.797693135e+308. Larger numbers return INF (on Macintosh) or -INF (under Windows) to indicate infinity.
put 2e+308 -- Number is greater than max float
-- INF
put log (0)
-- INF
Attempting an invalid calculation may return a meaningless value.
put log(-1) -- NAN -- Macintosh put log(-1) -- 0.0000000000e+0 -- Windows
The maxInteger
returns the maximum positive integer (2147483647, which equals 231−1). The minimum integer is −2147483648 (Macintosh) or −2147483647 (Windows). Adding to the maxInteger
or subtracting from the ...
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