Preservation laws for fixed and scientific decimal notation #
Point insertion preserves the positional coefficient. Leading fractional padding does not change that coefficient, and the scanner counts the padding when recovering the decimal scale.
Inserting a point preserves the coefficient and subtracts the fractional digit count. The suffix may be empty or an exponent accepted by the existing decimal scanner.
Fixed fractional digits recover the exact coefficient and the requested decimal scale.
Signed fixed fractional text, optionally followed by an exponent, preserves its coefficient.
Fixed notation recovers the coefficient after absorbing any positive exponent.
Fixed notation retains the complete record when its exponent specifies fractional places.
In particular, printing a decimal rounded to exponent -places preserves the exact record.
Absorbing a positive exponent into the coefficient preserves the exact rational value.
Fixed presentation preserves the sign, including the sign of zero.
Fixed formatting followed by parsing preserves the exact rational denoted by the input.
Scientific notation recovers the entire decimal record, including zero sign and precision.
Scientific formatting followed by parsing preserves the exact rational denoted by the input.