A system, method, and apparatus for converting a decimal real number in ASCII format to a decimal real number in floating point binary decimal format in a vector processor are described. The method results in the performance of the conversion in a branchless manner and in a constant-time regardless of the size of the ASCII string, within a given range of sizes provided for by the vector processor architecture. The method may take advantage of the single instruction multiple data (SIMD) feature of the vector processor, although it is not restricted to a single instruction.