1. A commercial instruction processor (CIP) for executing decimal alphanumeric instructions on operands stored in a memory, said operands being made up of a plurality of words, each of said plurality of words having a plurality of characters in a plurality of character positions, said CIP including apparatus for receiving data descriptor information describing the characteristics of said operands and decimal alphanumeric instruction information from said memory, and generating a plurality of signals for aligning said operands comprising: register means coupled to said memory for storing data descriptor signals received from said memory and representative of a length of one of said operands, indicative of said one operand being in a predetermined form, and indicative of a position of a predetermined starting character of said one operand when stored in said memory; control store means coupled to said memory and responsive to said instruction information for generating instruction direction signals indicative of whether the character positions of said operands would be processed in a left-to-right or a right-to-left direction by said CIP; read only memory means coupled to said register means and said control store means and responsive to said data descriptor length signals, said data descriptor predetermined form signal, said data descriptor position signals, and said instruction direction signals, all of which are applied to a plurality of address terminals of said read only memory means for generating said plurality of aligning signals representative of bits stored in an address location identified by the signals applied to said plurality of address terminals; first means coupled to said read only memory means and responsive to a first plurality of said aligning signals for generating signals, indicative of the number of read cycles needed to transfer a predetermined number of words of said plurality of words of said one operand from said memory; and second means coupled to said read only memory means and responsive to a second plurality of said aligning signals for generating signals for indicating said predetermined starting character position.