ILE COBOL Programmer's Guide

Internal Decimal (USAGE PACKED-DECIMAL or COMP-3)

Packed decimal format occupies 1 byte of storage for every two decimal places in the PICTURE description, except that the right-most byte contains only 1 digit and the sign. This format is most efficiently used when you code an odd number of digits in the PICTURE description, so that the left-most byte is fully used. Packed decimal format is handled as a fixed-point number for arithmetic purposes.

Why Use Packed Decimal

Packed decimal format:


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