Number Entry

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
• 1.234 n
• 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, and there can be a maximum of one space 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 or 1.234 m for 1.234 msec, or 10k or 10 k 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

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'.

The seconds portion of the entry can always include a decimal fraction.

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