With the absolute measuring method, the position value is available from the encoder immediately upon switch-on and can be called at any time by the subsequent electronics. There is no need to move the axes to find the reference position. The absolute position information is read from the scale graduation, which is formed from a serial absolute code structure or from several graduations or code tracks. A separate incremental track or the track with the finest graduation structure is interpolated for the position value and at the same time is used to generate an incremental signal.