Digit Names

[MartinLiss]

The numbers to the right of the decimal separator are of course called decimals. What are the numbers to the left of the decimal separator called?

[jemidiah]

I think I've only heard of it called the "integer part" of the number. This page seems to think "decimal digits" are those ones to the left of the decimal, too. The part to the right is the "fractional part" of course, but I don't remember another name for them.

[Logophobic]

Integers.

...

OK, that's probably not the answer you were expecting.

The usage of 'decimal' that you are refering to is synonymous with 'decimal fraction'. Thus, the numbers to the right of the decimal separator are the 'decimal part' of a number, with the numbers to the left being the 'integer part' of the number.

In regard to digit names, the digits to the right of the decimal separator are called tenths, hundredths, thousandths, etc. Those to the left are called units, tens, hundreds, etc.


... dagnabit, jemidiah beat me to it!

[MartinLiss]

It's not so important now because I think I've found another way around it but the reason I asked is that I have developed a control that limits what a user can enter via some Properties. One of those properties is MaxDecimals and hopefully it's pretty obvious that that limits the number of decimals to the right of the separator. I wanted to add an additional property that does the same for the other side of the separator and I needed a Max??? name.

[jemidiah]

The best I can come up with on the spot is "MaxDigitsLeft" and "MaxDigitsRight", or "MaxDigitsInteger", "MaxDigitsFraction"/"MaxDigitsDecimal". But I don't really think like most people so my naming schemes might be obtuse to some.

[dee-u]

Isn't it called Integral part?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point

[NickThissen]

Yep it's the integral part (not integer part, but that's probably wide-spread also and also makes more sense to me lol)

[Pradeep1210]

characteristic and mantissa respectively.

e.g.
In 2.102099,
characteristic = 2
mantissa = 0.102099

[jemidiah]

characteristic and mantissa respectively.

e.g.
In 2.102099,
characteristic = 2
mantissa = 0.102099

I had thought of that but I don't think that's exactly the mantissa. The mantissa would be 2.102099 in your example, with the exponent being 0.

[Pradeep1210]

I had thought of that but I don't think that's exactly the mantissa. The mantissa would be 2.102099 in your example, with the exponent being 0.

Not sure about wikipedia in particular, but when I google for this I find many sites that say what I said.
e.g. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Mantissa.html

I had read about it when I was a child and the memory has faded now. But all what I remember is before decimal is characteristic and after the decimal is mantissa. The mantissa is between 0 and 1. So it will always be 0.xxxx

[jemidiah]

Wikipedia gives a somewhat similar description of "characteristic" and "mantissa" relating to the logarithm of a number. It uses the example of log 120 ~= 2.079181.

The very last number ( 0.079181)—the fractional part of the logarithm of 120, known as the mantissa of the common logarithm of 120—was found in the table. (This stems from an older, non-numerical, meaning of the word mantissa: a minor addition or supplement, e.g. to a text. For a more modern use of the word mantissa, see significand.) The location of the decimal point in 120 tells us that the integer part of the common logarithm of 120, called the characteristic of the common logarithm of 120, is 2.

Regardless, if you have to look it up it's going to be of no use as a naming convention