Executable Block Statements - CONVERT

The new function CONVERT was added to round a double-precision number and to verify the number of decimal digits.

Syntax:

Usage:

Limitations:

Syntax:

CONVERT INVAR OUTVAR NUM ;

Notes:

• All variables must appear.

• The order of the variables must be as described above.

Usage:

Since most of the calculations in the Post should be as accurate as possible, variables should normally not be CONVERTed (e.g. rotation angles, DFPOST scale factor).

In some cases, calculations should be done on the data sent to the machine (e.g. the distance between two points).

In these cases, the variables should be CONVERTed, so their internal representation will fit their output format.

Example: - calculate the distance between two machine coordinates:

DFPOST FORMAT:     3,3,3,3,YES,YES

Before CONVERT:

CONVERT XOLD XOLD N ;
CONVERT XNEW XNEW N

After CONVERT:

Notes:

• Note the difference in the internal representation.

• The representation of OUTVAR will be according to its FORMAT. If the FORMAT of INVAR and OUTVAR is the same, OUTVAR will "look" like INVAR. Internally, however, OUTVAR will have only zeroes after the last visible digit.

Limitations:

The convert function can be used only for variables where the total number of digits (as defined in the DFPOST) does not exceed 9.

The total number of digits is: "Max integer part" + "Max fractional part".

Example: