The exponent is the component of a finite floating-point representation that signifies the integer power to which the radix is raised in determining the value of that floating-point representation.
Within the IEEE 754-2008 framework, separate notation is used to specify the exponent in the case that the significand
is considered as a single integer digit and/or a fraction field versus the case that
the significand is viewed as an integer. In the prior case, the exponent is denoted
;
in the latter, it is denoted 
. These two notions are connected by the identity 
for 
the precision (IEEE Computer
Society 2008).
In floating-point arithmetic, special distinction is made with regards to the so-called "biased exponents." A biased exponent is the result of adding to the exponent some constant (called the bias) chosen to make the range of the exponent nonnegative. Similarly, one often distinguishes preferred exponents as well.
