#lang scribble/manual
@(require scribble/racket
          scribble/eval
          scribble/bnf)

@title{Literals}

@section{Numeric literals}

There are four types of numeric literals: integers, floating point, imaginary,
and inexact. 

Integer literals come in four varieties: decimal integers, binary integers,
octal integers, and hexadecimal integers. Binary integers start with the prefix
@litchar{0b} or @litchar{0B}, octal integers start with the prefix
@litchar{0o} or @litchar{0O}, and hexadecimal integers start with the prefix
@litchar{0x} or @litchar{0X}.

Some examples of integer literals:

@codeblock|{
  7
  66
  123456789123456789123456789
  0o77
  0xcafebabe
}|


Floating point numbers are lexed just as they are in Racket.

@codeblock|{
  3.14
  2.718
  10.
  .001
  1e3
  1e+3
  1E-3
}|

Imaginary numbers are decimal integers or floating point numbers
suffixed with the letter @litchar{i}. (Note that a number of the
form a+bi is parsed as the addition of a real number and an
imaginary number with a real part of 0.)

@codeblock|{
  1i
  66i
  10.i
  3.14i
}|

Finally, a literal can be prefixed with @litchar{0nx}, to indicate
that it is inexact. (Here, a complex number such as 0nx2+3i parses
as the inexact number 2+3i, NOT the inexact number 2 + 3i).

@codeblock|{
  0nx1.0
  0nx2+3i
  0nx4i
}|

@section{String literals}

String literals are read in exactly the same manner as they are in
Racket. See
@(hyperlink "http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/reader.html?#(part._parse-string)"
  "the Racket reference") for more information.