how to get rid of the % in negative value

[johnking]

I read a string with measurement values via the serial port. The value in the string is in scientific format. Therefor I convert it to a decimal value using code below. For positive numbers it is ok. For negative numbers an % is printed before the - sign. 
Question: how to get of the % in the negative value ?


Code below shows the issue.



mean$ = "0.123456789e-3"            ''string with positive value,
                                   ''in real world it is read via serial port from an external instrument

mean = VAL(mean$)                   ''convert string to number

mean$ = using("#.#######", mean)    ''formats numericExpression as a string

PRINT mean$                         ''prints the positive value



mean$ = "-0.123456789e-3"           ''same string but now with negative value

mean = VAL(mean$)                   ''convert string to number

mean$ = using("#.#######", mean)    ''formats numericExpression as a string

PRINT mean$                         ''prints the negative value, but with an extra %







[pierre]

I don't know why the % sign shows up before the negative value, but you can get rid of it by adding the following line

mean$ = RIGHT$(mean$, len(mean$)-1)

just before the second 'PRINT mean$' statement.

pierre

[tenochtitlanuk]

It indicates you need to allocate TWO character positions before the decimal point, so change to
mean$ = using("##.#######", mean)

[Carl Gundel]

Dec 7, 2020 16:57:47 GMT -5 tenochtitlanuk said:

It indicates you need to allocate TWO character positions before the decimal point, so change to
mean$ = using("##.#######", mean)

It's an overflow indicator, and it is borrowed from Microsoft BASIC's PRINT USING statement.

[johnking]

excellent Carl, thank you. Sometimes you can search for hours, while the solution turns out simple.

[tsh73]

Sometimes you can search for hours,

just ASK