C - Vector of discrete data representing the combinations of 4 basic states (A, B, AB, C, AC, etc.)
Code of field: C
Type of field: multi-state unordered discrete data.
Storage: one integer with value 0 to 3 for each subfield.
Applicable to:
Discrete data, multiple states (ex: colors, type of vegetation, climate...)
Comments:
Originally the C characters format was introduced to handle color data. However, many different types of multi-state (up to 5000 states) discrete data can be handled with this format and the associated algorithms.