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(gawk.info)Scalar Constants

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Numeric and String Constants
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   A "numeric constant" stands for a number.  This number can be an
integer, a decimal fraction, or a number in scientific (exponential)
notation.(1) Here are some examples of numeric constants that all have
the same value:

     105
     1.05e+2
     1050e-1

   A string constant consists of a sequence of characters enclosed in
double quote marks.  For example:

     "parrot"

represents the string whose contents are `parrot'.  Strings in `gawk'
can be of any length, and they can contain any of the possible
eight-bit ASCII characters including ASCII NUL (character code zero).
Other `awk' implementations may have difficulty with some character
codes.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) The internal representation of all numbers, including integers,
uses double-precision floating-point numbers.  On most modern systems,
these are in IEEE 754 standard format.