5 of 97    5 The individual data items on the various types of cards are known as FACTORS.  Factors are grouped into eight different FACTOR TYPES, depending on their size and the kind of data storage that they require.   1. If the relevant information were in the form of a whole number (for example, the number of living units, or the number of bedrooms) then the factor type would be INTEGER. 2. If the data is in the form of a real number, which can include fractional or decimal values (2.5 baths, 9.357 acres, etc.)  then the Factor type would be SINGLE PRECISION.  Single Precision factors may contain numbers up to eight digits long. 3. DOUBLE PRECISION factors are similar to Single Precision, but allow data entries of numbers up to 16 digits long. 4. BYTE factors are numeric factors, which use only one byte of storage space to represent a numeric value between 0 and 255. 5. An alphanumeric string (a complicated - sounding term that simply means one or more letters or numbers intermixed) such as Owner Name or Property Location would be stored as a TEXT factor type.   6. There are certain fields which only allow you to select an item from a pre- defined set of choices, (i.e.: Acre Type, Physical Condition, etc.).  This type of factor is known as a CATEGORICAL.  7. USER-DATE factors are utilized for dates that can be entered or modified by the user.  They are always stored in MM/DD/YYYY format by the system. 8. AUTO-DATE factors are dates that are automatically assigned by the system whenever that particular item of data is stored.  They are also stored in MM/DD/YYYY format. Factors are assigned a certain length according to their type and their individual estimated needs at the time the database is created.