DB2 codes for numeric data in edit and validation routines

DB2® stores numeric data in a specially encoded "DB2-coded" format .

To retrieve numeric data in its original form, you must DB2-decode it according to its data type:

Table 1. DB2 decoding procedure according to data type
Data type	DB2 decoding procedure
SMALLINT	Invert the sign bit (high-order bit). Value Meaning 8001 0001 (+1 decimal) 7FF3 FFF3 (-13 decimal)
INTEGER	Invert the sign bit (high-order bit). Value Meaning 800001F2 000001F2 (+498 decimal) 7FFFFF85 FFFFFF85 (-123 decimal)
FLOAT	If the sign bit (high-order bit) is 1, invert only that bit. Otherwise, invert all bits. Value Meaning C110000000000000 4110000000000000 (+1.0 decimal) 3EEFFFFFFFFFFFFF C110000000000000 (-1.0 decimal)
DECIMAL	Save the high-order hexadecimal digit (sign digit). Shift the number to the left one hexadecimal digit. If the sign digit is X'F', put X'C' in the low-order position. Otherwise, invert all bits in the number and put X'D' in the low-order position. Value Meaning F001 001C (+1) 0FFE 001D (-1)
BIGINT	Invert the sign bit (high order bit). Value Meaning 8000000000000854 0000000000000854 (2132 decimal) 7FFFFFFFFFFFFFE0 FFFFFFFFFFFFFFE0 (-32 decimal)
DECFLOAT	Convert and return a DECFLOAT representation of a number or string representation of a number. Value Meaning D8F77D00000000000C 222C000000001E80 (+7.500 decfloat) 270882FFFFFFFFFFF2 A2300000000003D0 (-7.50 decfloat)