What is a Binary value?
Binary values are also known as Base 2 values.
In a computer, all the information is stored in binary format.
Example :
(1001001010) Base 2
The reason why we are calling a binary value a Base 2 value is, at each position a binary digit can be picked from either 0 or 1, meaning for each binary digit we have two combinations.
What is a Decimal value?
Decimal values are also known as Base 10 values.
- We use decimal values in our day-to-day life i.e. if we go to a supermarket the price of items is written in decimal format.
Example :
(345) base 10
The reason why we are calling a decimal value as Base 10 value is, at each position a decimal digit can be picked from numbers ranging from 0 to 9 meaning for each digit we have a total of 10 possibilities here.
What is the Octal value?
Octal values are also known as Base 8 values.
- Octal & Hexadecimal values were widely used during the 80’s computing era. Both these number systems were the compact form of a binary system.
- For the human mind, it is difficult to represent and remember a large value in binary format.
- Hence both Octal and Hexadecimal formats were introduced to make it easy.
Example:
(123) Base 8
- Each octal digit can be picked from numbers 0 to 7 and has a total of 8 combinations, hence we are calling it a Base 8 number.
- We need 3 bits to represent an octal digit.
What is the Hexadecimal value?
Hexadecimal values are also known as Base 16 values.
- Each hexadecimal digit can be picked from the following characters i.e. (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F)
- We have a total of 16 combinations for each hexadecimal digit. Hence we call it a Base 16 value.
Example:
(A3FBCFF) Base 16
In computer memory, 4-bits are required to represent each Hexadecimal digit.
- The last representation of the computer memory is 1 BYTE (8 bits). Also, each hexadecimal value represents the 8-bits of information.
- So, embedded programmers widely use hexadecimal representation to represent each location of their computer memory with each hexadecimal value.