Hexadecimal in programming
What the Hex?
Hex is a common way of displaying data, in order to make the data easy to read.
What does that mean? Read on…
Difficulty: Beginner | Easy | Normal | Challenging
Prerequisites:
- Some knowledge of Binary for programmers (something like THIS) would be useful
Terminology
Base number system: A term that means roughly the same as “Number bases”
Binary: The name of the base 2 number system
Byte (or Octet): 8 bits
Decimal: The system for denoting Integer and Non-Integer numbers
Hexadecimal (Hex): The name of the base 16 number system
Nibble: 4 bits
Number bases: The number of different digits that a system of counting uses
Don’t put a Hex on me!
Programmers will be familiar with Binary which gives access to the internal computer representation of numbers in Base 2. However, reading files of Binary would be enough to make even the most dedicated Computer Science student develop a rather hefty headache.
