Number Entry

• Introduction
• "European" Notation
• Hexadecimal Notation
• Binary Notation
• H:M:S Time Entry

Introduction:

Daqarta edit controls allow several options for value entry.

You can scroll the current value by clicking the little up-down arrow buttons at the right end of the control window. Alternatively, once the control window has the keyboard focus (by clicking anywhere in it) you can use the up and down arrow keys. Scroll changes take place immediately.

Integers or decimal fractions may be directly entered as usual. Hitting the Enter key will conclude that entry and cause the new value to take effect, as will simply clicking the cursor on another item.

Besides ordinary integers and decimals, you may also use standard scientific prefixes, exponential notation, or "European" notation. The following are all equivalent:

    0.000000001234
    1.234e-9
    1.234E-9
    0.001234u
    1.234n
    1n234
    1234p

Use 'u' for the 'micro' prefix since the Greek 'mu' is not a standard Windows keyboard character. You can also use either 'k' or 'K' for 'kilo'. There must be no spaces in the entered number, nor before the unit prefix, if any. If you enter any base unit after the prefix, such as 'sec' or 'Hz', it will be ignored.

However, it is best to avoid entering base units, since if you enter one without a prefix it will be treated as a bad prefix and rejected. Worse, if the base unit happens to start with the same letter as a possible prefix, you may end up entering a value much larger or smaller than intended.

For example, you should enter 1.234m for 1.234 msec, or 10k for 10 kHz.

Note also that if you are trying to use exponential notation and enter 'E' but forget the exponent value, Daqarta will assume that you mean Exa or 10^18... probably not what you intended!

Hitting the Enter key ends the entry.

If you hit the Escape key during value entry (not a scroll operation), the original value will be restored.

"European" Notation:

Daqarta supports a notation that is popular in Europe, whereby the decimal point is replaced with the prefix character. This saves space when printing values on small electronic components or schematic diagrams, and eliminates any international ambiguity over the use of a period versus a comma as the decimal point. In Daqarta, it also saves one keystroke. The following columns are equivalent:

  1.234m  ==  1m234
  12.7k   ==  12k7
  1.02M   ==  1M02

Hexadecimal Notation:

You can use hexadecimal notation to enter integer values by preceding the value with 'h', as in h3E8, which is equivalent to 1000. For direct keyboard entry into edit controls, this format is limited to integers up 8 hex characters or 32 bits (hFFFFFFFF = 2^32-1).

You may not use hexadecimal notation for direct entry of values that permit a fraction, such as Generator Tone Frequency, even if your entry does not actually have a fractional part.

For entry via macro commands, up to 8 fraction characters may be included, as in L.0.ToneFreq=h3E8.12345678.

Binary Notation:

Binary notation can be used for integer values by preceding the value with 'b', as in A=b10001, which is equivalent to A=17. This format is not likely to be useful for direct control entry, but can be convenient in macros for entering bit-mapped values such as Multi-Channel Stream selection like Center#N=b10001.

Binary entry is limited to integers of 32 bits or less, both for direct control entry and macro commands.

H:M:S Time Entry:

Most controls that accept time entry in seconds will also allow H:M:S (Hour:Minute:Second) notation for longer times. The values are not constrained to be less than 60. For example, 70 minutes can be entered as '70:0' as well as '1:10:0'.

Note that if you enter a value with a single colon, such as 1:23, the entry will be interpreted as minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes. (In this case the entered value will be 83 seconds.) However, if you follow it with an 'a' (or 'A') as in 1:23a, it will be interpreted as hours and minutes since midnight... which in this case would be equivalent to 83 * 60 = 4980 seconds. 1:23p (or 1:23P) would be 12 hours later, or 48180 seconds.

The seconds portion of the entry can always include a decimal fraction, but note that with a single colon and 'a' or 'p' there are only hours and minutes with no seconds; if you include a decimal it will result in an error and a returned value of 0.

After entry, Daqarta will report the equivalent value in seconds. Hence '1:20:30.5' will show as '4830.500' seconds.