(1) In word processing and scientific notation, a digit or symbol that appears below the line; for example, H
2O, 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.