Normal number (computing)

In computing, a normal number is a non-zero number in a floating-point representation which is within the balanced range supported by a given floating-point format: it is a floating point number that can be represented without leading zeros in its significand.

The magnitude of the smallest normal number in a format is given by:

where b is the base (radix) of the format (like common values 2 or 10, for binary and decimal number systems), and

depends on the size and layout of the format.

In the IEEE 754 binary and decimal formats, b, p,

have the following values:[1] For example, in the smallest decimal format in the table (decimal32), the range of positive normal numbers is 10−95 through 9.999999 × 1096.

Zero is considered neither normal nor subnormal.