Binary-coded Decimal

In computing and electronic systems, binary-coded decimal (BCD) is a class of binary encodings of decimal numbers where each decimal digit is represented by a fixed number of bits, usually four or eight, although other sizes (such as six bits) have been used historically. Special bit patterns are sometimes used for a sign or for other indications (e.g., error or overflow).

In byte-oriented systems (i.e. most modern computers), the term uncompressed BCD usually implies a full byte for each digit (often including a sign), whereas packed BCD typically encodes two decimal digits within a single byte by taking advantage of the fact that four bits are enough to represent the range 0 to 9. The precise 4-bit encoding may vary however, for technical reasons, see Excess-3 for instance.

BCD's main virtue is a more accurate representation and rounding of decimal quantities as well as an ease of conversion into human-readable representations. As compared to binary positional systems, BCD's principal drawbacks are a small increase in the complexity of the circuits needed to implement basic arithmetics and a slightly less dense storage.

BCD was used in many early decimal computers. Although BCD is not as widely used as in the past, decimal fixed-point and floating-point formats are still important and continue to be used in financial, commercial, and industrial computing, where subtle conversion and rounding errors that are inherent to floating point binary representations cannot be tolerated.