Abbreviation: DEC
DECIMAL is an arithmetic data type attribute that specifies that the base is decimal. Its format is:
DECIMAL[(p[,q])]
The precision p,q (q is optional and represents fractional digits) may be supplied with the DECIMAL attribute or with the FIXED or FLOAT attribute, but it cannot be specified twice. The precision p and the scale q (if specified) must be positive integers. If a precision or scale is not specified, a default is assumed. For more information on default precisions, see your Open PL/I User's Guide and the section DEFAULT in the chapter Statements.
If DECIMAL is supplied without FIXED or FLOAT, FIXED is the default. If FIXED or FLOAT is specified without BINARY or DECIMAL, DECIMAL is the default.
When used with FIXED, DECIMAL specifies fixed-point arithmetic values that contain at least p decimal digits. If q is specified, p minus q digits are integral digits and q digits are fractional digits. If q is omitted, q = 0 is assumed. These values are integers containing at most p decimal digits.
declare fd fixed decimal (1,2) init (2) /* not supported. */
When used with FLOAT, DECIMAL specifies floating-point arithmetic values whose mantissa contains the equivalent of at least p decimal digits. In this case, q cannot be specified.