A decimal floating-point number can be encoded in several ways, the different ways represent different precisions, for example 100.0 is encoded as 1000×10<sup>−1</sup>, while 100.00 is encoded as 10000×10<sup>−2</sup>. The set of possible encodings of the same numerical value is called a ''cohort'' in the standard. If the result of a calculation is inexact the largest amount of significant data is preserved by selecting the cohort member with the largest integer that can be stored in the significand along with the required exponent.
