Exponential Notation

VBA can handle very large numbers, up to a value of 1.7976931486232 raised to the power of 308, (1.7 308). To represent very large numbers such as these, exponential notation is used.

Commonly, exponential notation uses the letter 'E' in the number, followed by the sign of the number (+ or -), and then the exponential value (power) of the number. VBA uses the letter 'E' for Single data type exponential values, and the letter 'D' for Double data type exponential values. The maximum size number for a double precision data type, as quoted above, would be represented using exponential notation as 1.7976931486232D+308, or abbreviated to 1.79D+308.

You can use exponential notation in your VBA calculations, so long as the data types of all the variables in the calculation are capable of storing floating point values; i.e.: Single, Double or Variant.

For details about precision, accuracy, and rounding issues with using floating point variables in VBA, see Numeric Data Types, Floating Point Calculation Rules, and Rounding Numbers.

See Also

Numbers