Packed and zoned decimal
Calculations happen on the device in use. Entered data is not transmitted to the server.
Packed and zoned decimal
How a number is really written to disk, byte by byte, and how much room it takes.
123.4512 34 5C
The same bytes can be read as packed or as zoned: both readings appear here when they are valid. Spaces, lowercase and 0x prefixes are all accepted.
How to read these bytes
In zoned decimal every digit takes a whole byte: the high nibble is F and the low one holds the digit. In packed decimal two digits share a byte, so it takes nearly half the room. In both, the last nibble carries the sign: C positive, D negative, F unsigned. The decimal point is never stored: it lives only in the field definition. This matters when you stare at a record in hex through DSPPFM and F10, or when you need to know what a file will really weigh before you create it.
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