=====Converting Binary Coded Decimal=====

//By JGH, April 2007//\\ \\ **B**inary **C**oded **D**ecimal (BCD) is a method of representing a decimal number as a hexadecimal value using the hex digits 0-9 and ignoring A-F. For example, the number 21 (hex &15) would be represented as &21 (decimal 33). It can be a convenient internal representation of decimal numbers as each hexadecimal digit can be displayed without any further processing. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-coded_decimal|Wikipedia]].\\ \\  BCD values can be decoded with:\\ \\ 
<code bb4w>
          number% = VAL STR$~bcd%
</code>
\\  Numbers can be encoded in BCD using:\\ \\ 
<code bb4w>
          bcd% = EVAL("&"+STR$number%)
</code>