Data Types

Basic Types

Scalar Format	Data Type	Scalar Size
Packed Bits	P	1 bit
Nibble Packed Bits	N	4 bits
Offset Byte (Not Supported)	O	1 byte
Signed Byte	B	1 byte
Signed 12-bit Integer	J	12 bits
Signed (Short) Integer	I	2 bytes
Signed Long Integer	L	4 bytes
Signed Extra-Long Integer	X	8 bytes
Single-Precision Floating Point	F	4 bytes
Double-Precision Floating Point	D	8 bytes
ASCII String (8 Characters)	A	8 bytes
ASCII 256 Character String	Z	256 bytes

New Feature (Since NeXtMidas 3.9.4):
New Data Type 'Z' added to support longer ASCII strings IMPORTANT NOTE 'Z' as a Data Type means a 256 character ASCII String. 'Z' as a macro result type (displayed as 'z') still means Boolean. 'Z' as a Table value type (displayed as 'z') also still means Boolean. DataFile Keywords are not allowed to be typed 'A' or 'Z'. ASCII types are saved as 'S' String. ASCII/String Macro RESULTS are stored as 'S' String type. Trying to directly type a result as 'A' type gives a warning, and the type is converted to 'S'. DataFiles with 'Z' Format Type Data, including in a subrecord, will be given the BLUE VER 1.2.

New Feature (Since NeXtMidas 3.9.4):

New Data Type 'Z' added to support longer ASCII strings
IMPORTANT NOTE

'Z' as a Data Type means a 256 character ASCII String.
'Z' as a macro result type (displayed as 'z') still means Boolean.
'Z' as a Table value type (displayed as 'z') also still means Boolean.
DataFile Keywords are not allowed to be typed 'A' or 'Z'. ASCII types are saved as 'S' String.
ASCII/String Macro RESULTS are stored as 'S' String type. Trying to directly type a result as 'A' type gives a warning, and the type is converted to 'S'.
DataFiles with 'Z' Format Type Data, including in a subrecord, will be given the BLUE VER 1.2.

New Feature (Since NeXtMidas 4.1.2):
New Data Type 'J' added to support conservation of bandwidth and storage IMPORTANT NOTE 'J' 12-bit integer is primarily intended for storage and transport of type 1000 and 2000 data. 'SJ' support has limitations, as write operations need to be along byte boundaries. 12-bit 'J' was adopted as Jeff Schoen contribution and is primarily tested under intended use conditions. File operations, such as PLOT, FFT, NOOP, LIST2, DATALIST are all supported, though there are some minor limitations for SJ. Operations such as RESULTS, CALC, TABLE entries, IF, and DO are not intended usage and, as such, have received limited testing.

New Feature (Since NeXtMidas 4.1.2):

New Data Type 'J' added to support conservation of bandwidth and storage
IMPORTANT NOTE

'J' 12-bit integer is primarily intended for storage and transport of type 1000 and 2000 data.
'SJ' support has limitations, as write operations need to be along byte boundaries.
12-bit 'J' was adopted as Jeff Schoen contribution and is primarily tested under intended use conditions.
File operations, such as PLOT, FFT, NOOP, LIST2, DATALIST are all supported, though there are some minor limitations for SJ.
Operations such as RESULTS, CALC, TABLE entries, IF, and DO are not intended usage and, as such, have received limited testing.

Java Experts Take Note:
The naming convention for the integer types differs from Java. This is for historical reasons, to keep the terminology the same across all Midas frameworks. (The names originated on VMS which used a 16-bit integer type.)

X-Midas Users Take Note:
Older versions of X-Midas do not support the Extra-Long Integer (X) type. Support for the Extra-Long Integer (X) type in NeXtMidas and Martes predated X-Midas. Also note that inside a macro, NeXtMidas uses `S:` (String) rather then `A:` (ASCII). In other words, the NeXtMidas macro uses Java strings (variable length Unicode strings) rather than fixed-length ASCII strings.