Numeric controls and indicators accept only the following characters.
| Character(s) | Description | 
|---|---|
| Hexadecimal digits | 0 through F | 
| Octal digits | 0 through 7 | 
| Binary digits | 0 and 1 | 
| Decimal digits | 1, 1.0, 2, 3.5, and so on | 
| . | Decimal point | 
| + | Positive symbol | 
| – | Negative symbol | 
| E or e | For scientific or engineering notation format | 
| Inf | Infinity | 
| NaN | Not a number | 
| / | For use in absolute time format, which changes based on the local settings for the computer | 
| : | For use in absolute time format, which changes based on the local settings for the computer | 
| AM, am, PM, pm | For use in absolute time format, which changes based on the local settings for the computer | 
| SI prefixes | |
| y | yocto (10–24) | 
| z | zepto (10–21) | 
| a | atto (10–18) | 
| f | femto (10–15) | 
| p | pico (10–12) | 
| n | nano (10–9) | 
| u | micro (10–6) | 
| m | milli (10–3) | 
| c | centi (10–2) | 
| d | deci (10–1) | 
| da | deka (101) | 
| h | hecto (102) | 
| k | kilo (103) | 
| M | mega (106) | 
| G | giga (109) | 
| T | tera (1012) | 
| P | peta (1015) | 
| E | exa (1018) | 
| Z | zetta (1021) | 
| Y | yotta (1024) |