1. A computer program product for decomposing a decimal floating point datum, said computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor for performing a method comprising: obtaining a datum in a decimal floating point format; converting a significand of the datum in the decimal floating point format to the significand in a first format, wherein the converting comprises creating at least one other format of the significand to be used in the converting; and converting an exponent of the datum in the decimal floating point format to the exponent in a second format, wherein in response to converting the significand and converting the exponent the datum is provided in a format other than the decimal floating point format.