subscript

subscript

[′səb‚skript]

(science and technology)

A letter or symbol written below, and usually to the right, of another symbol for any of various purposes, such as to identify a particular element or elements of a set, to denote a constant value of a variable, or, in a chemical formula, to indicate the number of atoms of a particular kind in a molecule.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

subscript

(1) In word processing and scientific notation, a digit or symbol that appears below the line; for example, H₂O, the symbol for water. Contrast with superscript.

(2) In programming, a method for referencing data in a table. For example, in pricetable, the statement to reference a specific price in the table might be pricetable (item), ITEM being the subscript variable. In a two-dimensional table that includes price and discount, the statement pricetable (item,discount) could reference a discounted price. The relative locations of the current ITEM and DISCOUNT are kept in two index registers.

(3) In programming, a method for referencing data in a character array. For example, in an array named keycode, keycode[0] would refer to the first byte (starting with 0), the [0] being the subscript notation. The second byte would be referenced with keycode[1] and so on. See pointer.

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