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Number System

We are familiar with the decimal number system which is used in

our day-to-day work. Ten digits are used to four decimal
numbers. To represent these decimal digits, ten separate symbols
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are used. But a digital computer
stores, understands and manipulates information composed of any
zeros and ones. So, each decimal digit, letters, symbols etc.
written by the programmer (a user) are converted to binary codes
in the form of 0’s and 1’s within the computer. The no. system
is divided into some categories according to the base (or radix) of
the system as binary octal and hexadecimal. If a number system
of base r is a system, then the system has r distinct symbols for r
digits. The knowledge of the number system is essential to
understand the operation of a computer.

Decimal Number System

Decimal no. system have ten digits represented by

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9. So, the base or radix of such system
is 10.
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In this system the successive position to the left of the decimal

point represent units, tens, hundreds, thousands etc. For example,
if we consider a decimal number 257, then the digit representations
are

2 5 7

Hundred Tens Units

Position Position

The weight of each digit of a number depends on its relative

position within the number.

Example 1.1:

The weight of each digit of the

decimal no. 6472 =

6000+400+70+2

= 6X103+4X102+7X101+2X100

The weight of digits from right

hand side are- Weight

of 1st digit =2X

100 Weight of 2nd

digit =7X
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101 Weight of 3rd digit

= 4 X 102 Weight of

4th digit =6X

103

The above expressions can be written in general forms as the

weight of nth digit of the number from the right hand side

= nth digit X 10n-1

= nth digit X (base) n-1

The no. system in which the weight of each digit depends on

its relative position within the number is called positional
number system. The above form of general expression is
true only for positional number system.
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Binary Number System

Only two digits 0 and 1 are used to represent a binary

number system. So the base or radix of binary system is two
(2). The digits 0 and 1 are called bits (Binary Digits). In this
number system the value of the digit will be two times
greater than its predecessor. Thus the value of the places
are-

<-- <-- 32 <-- 16 <--8 <--4 <--2 <--1

The weight of each binary bit depends on its relative

position within the number. It is explained by the following
example--

Example:

The weight of bits of the binary number 10110 is-

= 1X24+0X23+1X22+1X21+0X20

= 16+0+4+2+0 = 22(decimal number)

The weight of each bit of a binary no. depends on its relative

pointer within the no. And explained from right hand side

Weight of 1st bit = 1st

bit X 20 Weight of 2nd

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bit = 2nd bit X 21

................................................

...............................................

And so on.

The weight of the nth bit of the number from right hand
side

=nth bit X 2n-1

=nth bit X (Base) n-1

It is seen that this rule for a binary number is same as that

for a decimal number system. The above rule holds good for
any other positioned number system. The weight of a digit
in any positioned number system depends on its relative
position within the number and the base of the number
system.
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Table 1.1 shows the binary equivalent numbers for

decimal digits.

Table: Binary equivalent of decimal numbers

Decimal Equivalent Binary
Number Number
0 0
1 1
2 10
3 11
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
8 1000
9 1001

Octal Number System

A commonly used positional number system is the Octal

Number System. This system has eight (8) digit
representations as 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7. The base or radix of
this system is 8. The values increase from left to right as 1,
8, 64, 512, 4096 etc. The
Decimal value 8 is represented in octal as 10, 9 as 11, and 10
as 12 and so on. As 8=23, an octal number is represented
by a group of three binary bits. For example 3 is represented
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as 011, 4 as 100 etc.

Table: The octal number and their binary

representations.
Decimal Octal Number Binary Coded
Number Octal No.
0 0 000
1 1 001
2 2 010
3 3 011
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4 4 100
5 5 101
6 6 110
7 7 111
8 10 100 000
10 12 001 010
15 17 001 111
16 20 010 000

Hexadecimal Number System

The hexadecimal number system is now extensively used

in computer industry. Its base (or radix) is 16, i.e.
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. The hexadecimal
numbers are used to represent binary numbers because of
case of conversion and compactness. As 16=24 ,
hexadecimal number is represented by a group of four
binary bits. For example, 5 is represented by 0101. Table
2.3 shows the binary equivalent of a decimal number and
its hexadecimal representation.

Table: Hexadecimal number and their Binary

representation
Deci No. Hexadecimal Binary coded
mal No. Hex. No
0 0 0000
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1 1 0001
2 2 0010
3 3 0011
4 4 0100
5 5 0101
6 6 0110
7 7 0111
8 8 1000
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9 9 1001
1 A 1010
0
1 B 1011
1
1 C 1100
2
1 D 1101
3
1 E 1110
4
1 F 1111
5
1.4 Number System
Conversion

As the computer uses different number systems, there is a

process of converting generally used decimal number systems to
other number systems and vice-versa.

Binary to Decimal Conversion

To convert a binary number to its decimal equivalent we use

the following expression. The weight of the nth bit of the
number from right hand side

=nth bit X 2n-1

First we mark the bit position and then we give the weight of
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each bit of the number depending on its position. The sum of

the weight of all bits gives the equivalent number.

Example: Convert binary (110100)2 to its decimal equivalent

Solution:

(110100)2=1X25+1X24+0X23+1X22+0X21+0X20

=32+16+0+4+0+0

= (52)10

(110100)2= (52)10
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Example: Converting binary fraction (111011.101)2 to its

equivalent decimal fraction.

Solution:

(111011.101)2 =
(1X25+1X24+1X23+0X22+1X21+1X20)+(1X 2-1+0X2-
2+1X2-3)

= (32+16+8+0+2+1) + (0.5+0+0.125)

= (59.625)10

(111011.101)2 = (59.625)10

Decimal to Binary Conversion

There are different methods used to convert decimal number

to binary number. The most common method is repeated-
division method. In this method, the number is successively
divided by 2 and its remainders 0’s abd 1’s are recorded.
The final binary result is obtained by assembling the
remainders in reverse order to obtain the binary equivalent
of the decimal number. In this case, the last remainder will
be the most significant bit (MSB).

Example 1.5 Convert (75)10 to its binary equivalent

2 |75 Remainder

2|37 1
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2|18 1

2|9 0 Read in

2|4 1 reverse order

2|2 0

1 0

So, (75)10= (1001011)2

The methods to convert the fraction decimal number to its

binary equivalent is repeatedly multiply the fraction part by
2 and count the most significant bits in the order they
appear.
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Example: Convert decimal fraction (12.75)10 to its

equivalent binary fraction.
2|12 Remain MSB .75
der
2|6 0 X2
2|3 0 1.5 Read
0
1 1 X2 the
MSB

1.00bits.

So, (12)10 = (1100)2 and (.75)10 = (.11)2

Now, (12.75)10 = (1100.11)2

Octal to Decimal Conversion

The method of converting octal numbers to decimal

numbers is simple. The decimal equivalent of an octal
number is the sum of the numbers multiplied by their
corresponding weights.

Example: Find decimal equivalent of octal number (153)8

Solution: 1X82 + 1X81 + 1X80 = 64

+ 40 + 3 = 107 So, (153)8

= (107)10

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Example: Find decimal equivalent of octal number (123.21)8

Solution: (1X82 + 2X81 + 3X80) + (2X8-1 + 1X8-2)

= (64 +16 + 3) + (0.25 + 0.0156) = 83.2656

So, (123.21)8 = (83.2656)10

Decimal to Octal Conversion

The procedure for conversion of decimal numbers to octal

numbers is exactly similar to the conversion of decimal
number to binary numbers except replacing 2 by 8.

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Example: Find the octal equivalent of decimal (3229)10

Solution:

Remain

ders 8 | 3229

8 | 403 5 read
in
8 | 50 3 rever
se
8|6 2 order
0 6

So, (3229)10= (6235)8

Example: Find the octal equivalent of (.123)10

Solution: Octal equivalent of fractional part of a decimal

number as follows:
8 X 0.123 = 0
0.984
8 X 0.984 = 7 read in
7.872
8 X 0.872 = 6 forward
6.976 order
8 X 0.976 = 7
7.808

Read the integer to the left of the decimal point

The calculation can be terminated after a few steps if the

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fractional part does not become zero.

The octal equivalent of

(0.123)10= (0.0767)8

Hexadecimal to Decimal Conversion

The method of converting hexadecimal numbers to decimal

number is simple. The decimal equivalent of a hexadecimal
number is the sum of the numbers multiplied by their
corresponding weights.

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Example: Find the decimal equivalent of (4A83)16

Solution:

(4A83)16= (4 X 163) + (10 X 162) + (8 X 191) +

(3 X 160)
=16384+2560+128+3

= (19075)10

(4A83)16= (19075)10

Example: Find the decimal equivalent of (53A.0B4)16

Solution:

(53A.0B4)16= (5 X 162) + (3 X 161) + (10 X 160) + (0 X 16-

1) + (11 X 16-2) + (4 X
16-3)

=1280+48+10+0+0.04927+0.0009765

= (1338.0439)10

(53A.0B4)16=(1338.0439)

10

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Decimal to Hexadecimal Conversion

To convert a decimal integer number to hexadecimal,

successively divide the given decimal number by 16 till the
quotient is zero. The last remainder is the MSB (Most
Significant Bit). The remainders read from bottom to top
give the equivalent hexadecimal integer.

To convert a decimal fraction to hexadecimal, successively

multiply the given decimal fraction by 16, till the product is
zero or till the required accuracy is obtained, and collect all
the integers to the left of decimal point. The first integer is
the MSB and the integers read from top to bottom give the
hexadecimal fraction.

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Example: Convert decimal (1234.675)10 to hexadecimal.

Solution:
1st consider (1234)10
Remainder
Decim Hexadec
al imal
16|1234 2 2
read
in
16|77 13 D rever
se
order
16|4 4 4
(1234)10 = (4D2)16
Conversion of (0.675)10

Hexadecimal conversion of fractional part of a decimal number as

follows:
Deci Hexadeci
mal mal
0.675 X 16 = 10.8 10 A
0.800 X 16 = 12.8 12 C
0.800 X 16 = 12.8 12 C
0.800 X 16 = 12.8 12 C
(0.675)10= (0.ACCC)16
Hence, (1234.675)10=
(4D2.ACCC)16

If the decimal number is very large, it is tedious to convert the

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number to binary directly. So it is always advisable to convert

the number into hex first, and then convert the hex to binary.

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