>I need to compare values some of which are in scientific notation (for example available disk space on two drives). The best I could come up with is to
>
>1. use the transform function to be sure all values are in scientific notation
>2. get the value of the exponents
>3. get the value of the mantissa
>4. compare the exponents and if needed the value of the mantissa
>
>Is there a better way?
>
>TIA

Can't you compare them directly? For example:

? 500 < 2e6

If the values are stored as texts, you can use val() to convert the individual values to numbers, or alternatively eval(), for example:

? eval("5e6") < eval("2e7")
* or even
? eval("5e6 < 2e7")