An apparatus includes a processing circuit and a storage device. The processing circuit is configured to perform one or more processing operations in response to one or more instructions to generate an anchored-data element. The storage device is configured to store the anchored-data element. A format of the anchored-data element includes an identification item, an overlap item, and a data item. The data item is configured to hold a data value of the anchored-data element. The identification item indicates an anchor value for the data value or one or more special values.