Joystick input, bit level information

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DirectX

I actually just have a rather small question, but I have had the HARDEST time finding information about it.

Assuming we have a 3-axis joystick being connected via USB to a Windows XP computer, and it is being handled by directx, my question is how is the data for the axes formatted?

Nearest I can tell, most joysticks nowadays have 12 bits of resolution, so is the data output as a 12-bit 2's compliment number? And after that, is it represented as a signed 16-bit integer when it is captured from directx?

Thanks