Packed decimal specifies a method of encoding decimal numbers by using each byte to represent two decimal digits. Packed decimal representation stores decimal data with exact precision. The fractional ...

Editor's Note: This is the first article in a two-part series on decimal representations and decimal arithmetic in general, and on Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) in particular. In this first installment, ...

Decimal arithmetic is indispensable in applications where precision is paramount, such as in financial, commercial and scientific domains. The inherent challenges of decimal computation, particularly ...

Not all Java developers need the precision that BigDecimal offers. However, those who do usually don’t have to use BigDecimal for very long before running into the java.lang.ArithmeticException with ...

Pi is, quite possibly, the most famous number known to man.* This fact is a little bit ironic, as we don’t actually have a number for pi. Well, not a complete number anyways, because pi never ends. If ...

In the first column of this series, I introduced the concepts underlying BCD (binary-coded-decimal) representations. In my second column I discussed how we go about adding and subtracting unsigned BCD ...

Mathematics students face challenges with rational and irrational numbers. Understanding the principles and patterns simplifies this concept. Rational numbers can be fractions of integers. Irrational ...

Pi Day, the International Day of Mathematics, is celebrated on 14 March, due to the date's American shorthand 3/14 – the first three digits of π. The true number of digits after the decimal place ...