Abstract: A variable length code decoding circuit provides a positive/negative inversion circuit which directly receives the most significant bit of the shift register receiving the code data. For variable length code data accompanying the sign bit, the positive/negative discriminating processing is performed independently of the decoding processing. Thus, although the size of the variable length code decoding table becomes large and the data length of the codes are increased by one bit, the decoding processing is not dropped because of the increase in the number of the decoding processing cycles. In addition, the variable length code decoding circuit can be used for a color moving image compress technology in accordance with the MPEGI of the ISO standard.