- Signed overpunch
A signed overpunch is a code used to store the
sign of a number by changing the last digit. It was used in oldpunched card systems and was carried over toCOBOL especially when usingEBCDIC . Its purpose is to save a character that would otherwise be used by the sign digit.cite web |url=http://www.3480-3590-data-conversion.com/article-signed-fields.html |title=Tech Talk, COBOL Tutorials, EBCDIC to ASCII Conversion of Signed Fields |accessdate=2008-03-15]The codes
Examples
10} is -100
45A is 451Decimal points are usually implied not explicit in the text. Using numbers with two decimal digits:
1000} is -100.00
References
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