Computer Number Format - Octal and Hex Number Display

Octal and Hex Number Display

See also Base64.

Octal and hex are a convenient way to represent binary numbers, as used by computers. Computer engineers often need to write out binary quantities, but in practice writing out a binary number such as 1001001101010001 is tedious, and prone to errors. Therefore, binary quantities are written in a base-8, or "octal", or, much more commonly, a base-16, "hexadecimal" or "hex", number format. In the decimal system, there are 10 digits, 0 through 9, which combine to form numbers. In an octal system, there are only 8 digits, 0 through 7. That is, an octal "10" is the same as a decimal "8", an octal "20" is a decimal "16", and so on. In a hexadecimal system, there are 16 digits, 0 through 9 followed, by convention, with A through F. That is, a hex "10" is the same as a decimal "16" and a hex "20" is the same as a decimal "32". An example and comparison of numbers in different bases is described in the chart below.

Read more about this topic:  Computer Number Format

Famous quotes containing the words number and/or display:

    It seems to me that there must be an ecological limit to the number of paper pushers the earth can sustain, and that human civilization will collapse when the number of, say, tax lawyers exceeds the world’s total population of farmers, weavers, fisherpersons, and pediatric nurses.
    Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)

    Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he accommodates himself to a society in which it is not polite to display wit.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)