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 6.1.1.1 Numeric and String Constants
 ....................................
 
 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-quotation 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.
 

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