Data Representation refers to the form in which data is stored, processed, and transmitted.
Devices such as smartphones, iPods, and computers store data in digital formats that can be
handled by electronic circuitry. ... Digital devices represent numeric data using the binary
number system, also called base 2.
The technique to represent and work with numbers is called number
system. Decimal number system is the most common number system.
Other popular number systems include binary number system, octal
number system, hexadecimal number system, etc.
Decimal Number System
Decimal number system is a base 10 number system having 10 digits from
0 to 9. This means that any numerical quantity can be represented using
these 10 digits. Decimal number system is also a positional value
system. This means that the value of digits will depend on its position. Let
us take an example to understand this.
Say we have three numbers – 734, 971 and 207. The value of 7 in all three
numbers is different−
In 734, value of 7 is 7 hundreds or 700 or 7 × 100 or 7 × 10 2
In 971, value of 7 is 7 tens or 70 or 7 × 10 or 7 × 10 1
In 207, value 0f 7 is 7 units or 7 or 7 × 1 or 7 × 10 0
The weightage of each position can be represented as follows −
In digital systems, instructions are given through electric signals; variation is
done by varying the voltage of the signal. Having 10 different voltages to
implement decimal number system in digital equipment is difficult. So,
many number systems that are easier to implement digitally have been
developed. Let’s look at them in detail.
Binary Number System
The easiest way to vary instructions through electric signals is two-state
system – on and off. On is represented as 1 and off as 0, though 0 is not
actually no signal but signal at a lower voltage. The number system having
just these two digits – 0 and 1 – is called binary number system.
Each binary digit is also called a bit. Binary number system is also
positional value system, where each digit has a value expressed in powers
of 2, as displayed here.
In any binary number, the rightmost digit is called least significant bit
(LSB) and leftmost digit is called most significant bit (MSB).
And decimal equivalent of this number is sum of product of each digit with
its positional value.
110102 = 1×24 + 1×23 + 0×22 + 1×21 + 0×20
= 16 + 8 + 0 + 2 + 0
= 2610
Computer memory is measured in terms of how many bits it can store. Here
is a chart for memory capacity conversion.
1 byte (B) = 8 bits
1 Kilobytes (KB) = 1024 bytes
1 Megabyte (MB) = 1024 KB
1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB
1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 GB
1 Exabyte (EB) = 1024 PB
1 Zettabyte = 1024 EB
1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1024 ZB
Octal Number System
Octal number system has eight digits – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Octal
number system is also a positional value system with where each digit has
its value expressed in powers of 8, as shown here −
Decimal equivalent of any octal number is sum of product of each digit with
its positional value.
7268 = 7×82 + 2×81 + 6×80
= 448 + 16 + 6
= 47010
Hexadecimal Number System
number system has 16 symbols – 0 to 9 and A to F where A is equal to 10,
B is equal to 11 and so on till F. Hexadecimal number system is also a
positional value system with where each digit has its value expressed in
powers of 16, as shown here −
Decimal equivalent of any hexadecimal number is sum of product of each
digit with its positional value.
27FB16 = 2×163 + 7×162 + 15×161 + 10×160
= 8192 + 1792 + 240 +10
= 1023410
Number System Relationship
The following table depicts the relationship between decimal, binary, octal
and hexadecimal number systems.
HEXADECIMAL DECIMAL OCTAL BINARY
0 0 0 0000
1 1 1 0001
2 2 2 0010
3 3 3 0011
4 4 4 0100
5 5 5 0101
6 6 6 0110
7 7 7 0111
8 8 10 1000
9 9 11 1001
A 10 12 1010
B 11 13 1011
C 12 14 1100
D 13 15 1101
E 14 16 1110
F 15 17 1111
Decimal to Binary
Decimal numbers can be converted to binary by repeated division of the
number by 2 while recording the remainder. Let’s take an example to see
how this happens.
The remainders are to be read from bottom to top to obtain the binary
equivalent.
4310 = 1010112
Decimal to Octal
Decimal numbers can be converted to octal by repeated division of the
number by 8 while recording the remainder. Let’s take an example to see
how this happens.
Reading the remainders from bottom to top,
47310 = 7318
Decimal to Hexadecimal
Decimal numbers can be converted to octal by repeated division of the
number by 16 while recording the remainder. Let’s take an example to see
how this happens.
Reading the remainders from bottom to top we get,
42310 = 1A716
Binary to Octal and Vice Versa
To convert a binary number to octal number, these steps are followed −
Starting from the least significant bit, make groups of three bits.
If there are one or two bits less in making the groups, 0s can be added after the
most significant bit
Convert each group into its equivalent octal number
Let’s take an example to understand this.
101100101012 = 26258
To convert an octal number to binary, each octal digit is converted to its 3-
bit binary equivalent according to this table.
Octal Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Binary Equivalent 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111
546738 = 1011001101110112
Binary to Hexadecimal
To convert a binary number to hexadecimal number, these steps are
followed −
Starting from the least significant bit, make groups of four bits.
If there are one or two bits less in making the groups, 0s can be added after the
most significant bit.
Convert each group into its equivalent octal number.
Let’s take an example to understand this.
101101101012 = DB516
To convert an octal number to binary, each octal digit is converted to its 3-
bit binary equivalent.
ASCII
Besides numerical data, computer must be able to handle alphabets,
punctuation marks, mathematical operators, special symbols, etc. that form
the complete character set of English language. The complete set of
characters or symbols are called alphanumeric codes. The complete
alphanumeric code typically includes −
26 upper case letters
26 lower case letters
10 digits
7 punctuation marks
20 to 40 special characters
Now a computer understands only numeric values, whatever the number
system used. So all characters must have a numeric equivalent called the
alphanumeric code. The most widely used alphanumeric code is American
Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). ASCII is a 7-bit code that
has 128 (27) possible codes.
ISCII
ISCII stands for Indian Script Code for Information Interchange. IISCII
was developed to support Indian languages on computer. Language
supported by IISCI include Devanagari, Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
Tamil, Telugu, etc. IISCI is mostly used by government departments and
before it could catch on, a new universal encoding standard
called Unicode was introduced.
Unicode
Unicode is an international coding system designed to be used with different
language scripts. Each character or symbol is assigned a unique numeric
value, largely within the framework of ASCII. Earlier, each script had its own
encoding system, which could conflict with each other.
In contrast, this is what Unicode officially aims to do − Unicode provides a
unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter
what the program, no matter what the language.
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