NAME
    digits - return number of "decimal" digits in an integral part

SYNOPSIS
    digits(x [,b])

TYPES
    x		real
    b		integer >= 2, defaults to 10

    return	integer

DESCRIPTION
    Returns number of digits in the standard base-b representation
    when x is truncated to an integer and the sign is ignored.

    To be more precise: when abs(int(x)) > 0, this function returns
    the value 1 + ilog(x, b).  When abs(int(x)) == 0, then this
    function returns the value 1.

    If omitted, b is assumed to be 10.  If given, b must be an
    integer > 1.

    One should remember these special cases:

	digits(12.3456) == 2    computes with the integer part only
	digits(-1234) == 4      computes with the absolute value only
	digits(0) == 1          specical case
	digits(-0.123) == 1     combination of all of the above

EXAMPLE
    > print digits(100), digits(23209), digits(2^72)
    3 5 22

    > print digits(0), digits(1), digits(-1)
    1 1 1

    > print digits(-1234), digits(12.3456), digits(107.207)
    4 2 3

    > print digits(17^463-1, 17), digits(10000, 100), digits(21701, 2)
    3, 15 14

LIMITS
    b > 1

LINK LIBRARY
    long qdigits(NUMBER *q, ZVALUE base)

SEE ALSO
    digit, places