12E3

12e3 is a numeric literal written in scientific notation. It represents 12 × 10^3, which equals 12,000. The letter e denotes the exponent of ten and is commonly used in scientific, engineering, and computing contexts to express numbers compactly.

In computing and programming languages, 12e3 is typically parsed as a floating-point literal. For example, in languages such as Python, JavaScript, C, C++, and Java, 12e3 evaluates to 12000.0. The notation is case-insensitive, so 12E3 is equivalent. While 12e3 equals 1.2e4 in value, the two forms reflect different mantissas and exponents but denote the same quantity.

Examples of related forms include 1.2e4, which also represents 12,000, and 12e-3, which equals 0.012. The exponent can be negative, indicating division by a power of ten (e.g., 4.5e-2 equals 0.045). Exponent notation is widely supported in data formats and tools, including calculators, spreadsheets, programming languages, and data interchange formats.

Notes and caveats: 12e3 is a concise way to express large numbers but may be unfamiliar to readers not versed in scientific notation. In some locales, decimal separators differ, but the exponent notation using e or E is standard and independent of locale. When displaying or printing numbers, some environments may choose to render 12e3 as 12000 or 1.2e4 depending on formatting settings.