Binary Representation of "decimal"

This section describes binary representations of 'decimal' floating-point values according to the Microsoft .NET Framework reference manual.

The binary representation of a "decimal" value is well described by the description of the Decimal.GetBits() method in the Microsoft .NET Framework Reference manual.

The binary representation of a "decimal" value requires 128 bits with the following layout:

The value is then represented through the following expression:

   v = (-1)^s * c * 10^(-e)

The following sample program illustrates the binary representation of several "decimal" values:

// DecimalBits.cs
// Copyright (c) 2006 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.

using System;
public class DecimalBits {
   public static void Main() {
      Console.WriteLine("s c        e                          v");
      WriteBits(1.0m);
      WriteBits(256.0m*256*256*128);
      WriteBits(256.0m*256*256*256-1);
      WriteBits(256.0m*256*256*256);
      WriteBits(0.1m);
      WriteBits(0.01m);
      WriteBits(100.0m);
      WriteBits(-1.0m);
      WriteBits(1.0m/3);
      WriteBits(2.0m/3);
   }
   public static void WriteBits(decimal value) {
      int[] bits;
      bits = decimal.GetBits(value);
      Console.Write("{0}",((bits[3]>>31)&0x1).ToString("X1"));
      Console.Write(" __{0}____",
         ((bits[3]&0x00ff0000)>>16).ToString("X2"));
      Console.Write(" ");
      for (int i=1; i<4; i++) {
         Console.Write("{0} ",bits[3-i].ToString("X8"));
      }
      Console.WriteLine("{0}",value);
   }
}

Output:

s c        e                          v
0 __00____ 00000000 00000000 00000001 1
0 __00____ 00000000 00000000 80000000 2147483648
0 __00____ 00000000 00000000 FFFFFFFF 4294967295
0 __00____ 00000000 00000001 00000000 4294967296
0 __01____ 00000000 00000000 00000001 0.1
0 __02____ 00000000 00000000 00000001 0.01
0 __00____ 00000000 00000000 00000064 100
1 __00____ 00000000 00000000 00000001 -1
0 __1C____ 0AC544CA 14B700CB 05555555 0.3333333333333333333333333333
0 __1C____ 158A8994 296E0196 0AAAAAAB 0.6666666666666666666666666667

Comparing to the binary representation of "double", "decimal" has the advantage of capturing 4 times more binary digits, therefor, more accurate. But to keep 4 times more digits, there is big extra cost in carrying out operations. As one of my earlier sample codes shows, "decimal" multiply and divide are about 27 times slower than "double".

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of C# (C Sharp)

 Data Type and Variables

 Logical Expressions and Conditional Statements

 Arrays and Loop Statements

 Data Type Features

Floating-Point Data Types

 Precision of Floating-Point Data Types

 Precision of Floating-Point Data Types - Test

 Performance of Floating-Point Data Types

 Performance of Floating-Point Data Types - Test

 IEEE 754 Standards - "float" and "double"

 IEEE 754 Standards - "float" and "double" - Test

Binary Representation of "decimal"

 Accuracy of "decimal" Data Type

 Passing Parameters to Methods

 Execution Environment Class

 Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

 Class Features

 C# Compiler and Intermediate Language

 Compiling C# Source Code Files

 MSBuild - Microsoft Build Engine

 Memory Usages of Processes

 Multithreading in C#

 Async Feature from C# 5

 System.IO.FileInfo Class

 System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo Class

 WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation

 Partial Classes and Partial Methods

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/ePUB