It looks to me that the assertion was just incorrect.
/* PSPP - a program for statistical analysis.
- Copyright (C) 2006, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+ Copyright (C) 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
size_t i;
assert (is_integer_format (format));
- assert (cnt < 8);
+ assert (cnt <= 8);
value <<= 8 * (8 - cnt);