This article gives a mathematical definition. For a more accessible article see Decimal.

A decimal representation of a non-negative real number r is an expression in the form of a series, traditionally written as a sum

where a₀ is a nonnegative integer, and a₁, a₂, ... are integers satisfying 0 ≤ a_i ≤ 9, called the digits of the decimal representation. The sequence of digits specified may be finite, in which case any further digits a_i are assumed to be 0. Some authors forbid decimal representations with a trailing infinite sequence of "9"s. This restriction still allows a decimal representation for each non-negative real number, but additionally makes such a representation unique. The number defined by a decimal representation is often written more briefly as