This change fixes:
MCOL-4462 CAST(varchar_expr AS DECIMAL(M,N)) returns a wrong result
MCOL-4500 Bit functions processing throws internally trying to cast char into decimal representation
MCOL-4532 CAST(AS DECIMAL) returns a garbage for large values
Also, this change makes string-to-decimal conversion 5-10 times faster,
depending on exact data.
Performance implemenent is achieved by the fact that (unlike in the old
implementation), the new version does not do any "string" object copying.