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In computer science, the sign bit is a bit in a signed number representation that indicates the sign of a number. Although only signed numeric data types have a sign bit, it is invariably located in the most significant bit position,[1] so the term may be used interchangeably with "most significant bit" in some contexts.
Almost always, if the sign bit is 0, the number is non-negative (positive or zero).[1] If the sign bit is 1 then the number is negative. Formats other than two's complement integers allow a signed zero: distinct "positive zero" and "negative zero" representations, the latter of which does not correspond to the mathematical concept of a negative number.
When using a complement representation, to convert a signed number to a wider format the additional bits must be filled with copies of the sign bit in order to preserve its numerical value,[2]: 61–62 a process called sign extension or sign propagation.[3]
the signbit is a bit in a signed number representation that indicates the sign of a number. Although only signed numeric data types have a signbit, it...
operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple...
bit of byte != 0); /* signbit of byte is second high-order bit (0x40) */ if ((shift <size) && (signbit of byte is set)) /* sign extend */ result |= (~0...
prefixing them with a minus sign ("−"). However, in RAM or CPU registers, numbers are represented only as sequences of bits, without extra symbols. The...
has one bit, the signbit, which denotes whether the number is non-negative or negative. A number is called signed if it contains a signbit, otherwise...
64-bit significand extended precision format (similar to the Intel format although padded to a 96-bit format with 16 zero bits inserted between the sign...
unsigned. In a 1+7-bitsign-and-magnitude representation for integers, negative zero is represented by the bit string 10000000. In an 8-bit ones' complement...
distinct NaN values, depending on which bits are set in the significand field, but also on the value of the leading signbit (but applications are not required...
the 8 bits following the signbit (the 2 bits mentioned plus 6 bits of "exponent continuation field"), and the significand is the remaining 23 bits, with...
In a computer processor the negative flag or sign flag is a single bit in a system status (flag) register used to indicate whether the result of the last...
754-2008, has 16-bit binary minifloats. A minifloat is usually described using a tuple of four numbers, (S, E, M, B): S is the length of the sign field. It is...
(including signed zeros and subnormal numbers), infinities, and special "not a number" values (NaNs) interchange formats: encodings (bit strings) that...
leftmost bit (usually the signbit in signed integer representations) is replicated to fill in all the vacant positions (this is a kind of sign extension)...
single bit in a system status register used to indicate when an arithmetic overflow has occurred in an operation, indicating that the signed two's-complement...
the Unix epoch (00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970) – and store it in a signed 32-bit integer. The data type is only capable of representing integers between...
32 bits (4 bytes), with a 23-bit mantissa, 1-bitsign, and an 8-bit exponent. Extended (12k) BASIC included a double-precision type with 64 bits. During...
of bits. Those types are specified as _BitInt(N), where N is an integer constant expression that denotes the number of bits, including the signbit for...
(PCM), bit depth is the number of bits of information in each sample, and it directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample. Examples of bit depth...
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