ALL meanings of packed decimal
- abbreviation Technical meaning of PACKED DECIMAL binary coded decimal 3
- noun Definition of packed decimal in Technology (data) (BCD, packed decimal) A number representation where a number is expressed as a sequence of decimal digits and then each decimal digit is encoded as a four-bit binary number (a nibble). E.g. decimal 92 would be encoded as the eight-bit sequence 1001 0010. In some cases, the right-most nibble contains the sign (positive or negative). It is easier to convert decimal numbers to and from BCD than binary and, though BCD is often converted to binary for arithmetic processing, it is possible to build hardware that operates directly on BCD. 1
- noun packed decimal (computing) A storage mode that places two decimal digits into one byte, each digit occupying four bits. The sign occupies four bits in the least significant byte; defined as COMP-3 in COBOL. 0