>But is it not the case that BCD is not available generally, at least on the Intel platform?
>
>On IBM mainframes, and I believe in their AS/400 series too, "packed decimal" is fully integrated into the INSTRUCTION SET in the hardware. In other words, there are specific instructions to ADD PACKED, SUBTRACT PACKED, etc.
>
>cheers
I am afraid that is so - they are not available at the hardware level. The idea is to check for their availability in a database server, or in specific languages. In VFP, for example, the best you can get is Currency, which is limited to four decimals, plus, you may sometimes want to handle larger numbers than this format provides.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
