The Keysight 34465A Digital Multimeter is specified as a 6½ digit multimeter.
However, the meter is actually a 1,200,000 counts meter, since the meter wraps at 1.2, so if measuring a 1.19 kOhm resister, the reading is 1.190,000 kOhm, and if measuring a 1.21 kOhm resistor, the reading will be 01.210,00 kOhm.
Usually the ½ in specification of a multimeter means that it wraps as 2.0 (see EEVblog #26), for example a 3½ digit multimeter has 2000 counts, and can do reading up to 1999, so if measuring a 1.9 kOhm resister, the reading is 1.900 kOhm, and if measuring a 1.2 kOhm resistor, the reading will be 02.10 kOhm.
Based on this, I would think the Keysight 34465A Digital Multimeter should be specified as less than 6½ digits, for example log10(1200000) = 6.08 digit multimeter.
So, is a multimeter with 1,200,000 counts actually a 6½ digit multimeter?
Best Answer
The 1.999999 is already a lie. A 6.5 digit meter should have \$10^{6.5}\$ = 3162377 "counts".
So, extending the lie, meters that have 3999 counts are described as 3-3/4 digit, when in fact they're barely 3.5 digit.
Lies, damn lies, and marketing. Maybe a class action suit is in order if you can claim you were hoodwinked by their fake "marketing digits".
To answer your title question, the meter in question is a 6.08 digit multimeter if it has 1,200,000 counts.