More elegant magnitude method

I have a need to find the order of number to get a scaling parameter as a 
power of 10. I have a function that works *so far*, but it is ugly and 
probably buggy. In the interest of avoiding code-based outliers in my 
data, I thought I would ask if anyone here has a better way.

scl <- function(x){

+ length(charToRaw(format(trunc(x), scientific = F)))-1}

a <- 123456789
b <- 1E15
c <-  12.345
scl(a)

[1] 8

scl(b)

[1] 15

scl(c)

[1] 1

Thanks
--------------------------------------
Jonathan P. Daily
Technician - USGS Leetown Science Center
11649 Leetown Road
Kearneysville WV, 25430
(304) 724-4480
"Is the room still a room when its empty? Does the room,
 the thing itself have purpose? Or do we, what's the word... imbue it."
     - Jubal Early, Firefly