Fix an integer $N\ge 2$. For a positive integer $n\in\Bbb N$, let $n=d_{0}(n)+d_{1}(n)N+d_{2}(n)N^{2}+\ldots+d_{\gamma(n)}(n)N^{\gamma(n)}$ where $d_{i}(n)\in\{0,1,2,\ldots,N-1\}$ and $d_{\gamma(n)}(n)\not=0$ denote the $N$-ary expansion of $n$. For a probability vector $\bold p=(p_{0},\ldots,p_{N-1})$ and $r>0$, the $r$ approximative discrete Besicovitch–Eggleston set $B_{r}(\bold p)$ is defined by $$B_{r}(\bold p) = \bigg\{n\in\Bbb N\,{|}\,\bigg\|\,\frac{|\{0\le k\le\gamma(n)\,{|}\,d_{k}(n)=i\}|}{\gamma(n)\,{+}\,1} - p_{i} \bigg| \le r \,\,\text{for all $i$} \bigg\}\,,$$ that is, $B_{r}(\bold p)$ is the set of positive integers $n$ such that the frequency of the digit $i$ in the $N$-ary expansion of $n$ differs from $p_{i}$ by less than $r$ for all $i\in\{0,1,2,\ldots,N-1\}$. Three natural fractional dimensions of subsets $E$ of ${\mathbb N}$ are defined, namely, the lower fractional dimension $\underline\dim(E)$, the upper fractional dimension $\overline\dim(E)$ and the exponent of convergence $\delta(E)$, and the dimensions of various subsets of ${\mathbb N}$ defined in terms of the frequencies of the digits in the $N$-ary expansion of the positive integers are studied. In particular, the dimensions of $B_{r}(\bold p)$ are computed (in the limit as $r\searrow 0$). Let ${\bold p}=(p_{0},\ldots,p_{N-1})$ be a probability vector. Then $$\lim_{r\searrow 0}\,\,\underline{\dim}(B_{r}({\bold p})) = \lim_{r\searrow 0}\,\,\overline{\dim}(B_{r}({\bold p})) = \lim_{r\searrow 0}\,\,\delta(B_{r}({\bold p})) = -\frac{\sum_{i}p_{i}\log p_{i}}{\log N}\,.$$ This result provides a natural discrete analogue of a classical result due to Besicovitch and Eggleston on the Hausdorff dimension of certain sets of non-normal numbers.

Several applications to the theory of normal numbers are given.