sign-and-magnitude code

sign-and-magnitude code

[′sīn ən ′mag·nə‚tüd ‚kōd] (computer science) The representation of an integer X by (-1) a0(2 n-2 a1+ 2 n-3 a2+ ⋯ + an-1), where a0 is 0 for X positive, and a0 is 1 for X negative, and any aj is either 0 or 1.