Numeric Data

Numeric data can be stored in either integer or floating point format.

Integers

Use the integer data type when you want to store whole numbers. Here are some examples of integer values:

Panorama X stores integers in 64 bit format, which means that any integer value between -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 and +9,223,372,036,854,775,807 can be stored. (Panorama 6 and earlier versions used 32 bit format, which was much more limited.)

Floating Point Numbers

Use the floating point data type when you need to store real numbers – numbers with a fractional component. Here are some examples of floating point values.

1.5
3.14159
-8.1893047e12
39129.74

Panorama X stores floating point values in IEEE 64 bit format, which means that values approximately between -10³⁰⁸ to 10³⁰⁸ can be stored, with approximately 16 significant digits. For detailed technical information about this format see double precision floating point.

Fixed Point Numbers

Legacy versions of Panorama (version 6 and earlier) had several “fixed point” formats. These formats could store a limited range of real numbers with limited precision. Many years ago, fixed point numbers had a performance advantage over floating point numbers, but this is no longer the case. Since the limited precision of fixed point numbers could cause calculation errors, fixed point formats are no longer used. When a database is converted from Panorama 6 to Panorama X, all fixed point data fields are converted to floating point format.

Formatting Numbers as Text

Internally, Panorama stores numbers in a pure binary form. But when a number is displayed or printed, it is converted to text so that you can read it. This conversion can take different forms, for example the number 1234 could be formatted many ways, some of which are shown here:

By default, Panorama will pick the simplest format, but you can explicitly control how numbers are formatted by using a Numeric Pattern. See Numeric Patterns to learn all the details.

See Also

Choices -- fixed list of choices.
Data Types -- different types of data that can be stored in Panorama, including text, numbers and dates.
Dates -- working with dates.

History

Version	Status	Notes
10.0	Updated	Carried over from Panorama 6.0, but fixed point numbers are no longer supported (use floating point instead).