Computer Science 2210

Notes
Chapter 1 Data representation
Topic: 1.1 Number systems

DIGITAL NUMBER SYSTEM

A digital system can understand positional number system only where there are a few symbols called
digits and these symbols represent different values depending on the position they occupy in the number.
A value of each digit in a number can be determined using:
 The digit
 The position of the digit in the number
 The base of the number system (where base is defined as the total number of digits available in
the number system).
You should understand the following number systems which are frequently used in computers.
S.N. Number System & Description
1 Binary Number System
Base 2. Digits used: 0, 1
2 Decimal/Denary Number System
Base 10. Digits used: 0 to 9
3 Hexadecimal Number System
Base 16. Digits used: 0 to 9, Letters used: A to F

Binary Number System

Characteristics:
 Uses two digits, 0 and 1.
 Also called base-2 number system
 Each position in a binary number represents a power of the base (2). Example: 20
 Last position in a binary number represents an x power of the base (2). Example: 2 x where x
represents the last position ─ 1.
Example:
Binary Number: 101012

Decimal/Denary Number System

Characteristics:
 Uses 10 digits, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
 Also called base-10 number system
 Each position in a denary number represents a power of the base (10). Example: 100
 Last position in a denary number represents an x power of the base (10). Example: 10x where x
represents the last position ─ 1.
Example:
Denary Number: 532410

Hexadecimal Number System

Characteristics:
 Uses 10 digits and 6 letters, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E and F.
 Letters represents numbers starting from 10. A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, F = 15.
 Also called base-16 number system.
 Each position in a hexadecimal number represents a power of the base (16). Example 160.
 Last position in a hexadecimal number represents an x power of the base (16). Example 16x where
x represents the last position−1.
Example:
Hexadecimal Number: 19FDE16

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Uses of hexadecimal system
Hexadecimal system is used to represent the following things:
 Error codes
 MAC addresses
 IPv6 addresses
 HTML colour codes

NUMBER SYSTEM CONVERSION

There are many methods or techniques which can be used to convert numbers from one base to another.
We'll demonstrate here the following:
 Decimal to Other Base System
 Other Base System to Decimal
 Binary to Hexadecimal
 Hexadecimal to Binary

Decimal to Other Base System

Steps
 Step 1 − Divide the decimal number to be converted by the value of the new base.
 Step 2 − Get the remainder from Step 1 as the rightmost digit (least significant digit) of new
base number.
 Step 3 − Divide the quotient of the previous divide by the new base.
 Step 4 − Record the remainder from Step 3 as the next digit (to the left) of the new base
number.
Repeat Steps 3 and 4, getting remainders from right to left, until the quotient becomes zero in
Step-3.
The last remainder thus obtained will be the Most Significant Digit (MSD) of the new base number.
Example:
Decimal Number: 2910
Calculating Binary Equivalent

Steps Operation Quotient Remainder

1 29 / 2 14 1
2 14 / 2 7 0
3 7/2 3 1
4 3/2 1 1
5 1/2 0 1

As mentioned in Steps 2 and 4, the remainders have to be arranged in the reverse order so that the first
remainder becomes the Least Significant Digit (LSD) and the last remainder becomes the Most Significant
Digit (MSD).
Decimal Number, 2910 = Binary Number, 111012.

Other Base System to Decimal System

Steps
 Step 1 − Determine the column (positional) value of each digit (this depends on the position
of the digit and the base of the number system).
 Step 2 − Multiply the obtained column values (in Step 1) by the digits in the corresponding
columns.
 Step 3 − Sum the products calculated in Step 2. The total is the equivalent value in decimal.

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Example
Binary Number, 111012
Calculating Decimal Equivalent
Steps Decimal Number
1 ((1 × 24) + (1 × 23) + (1 × 22) + (0 × 21) + (1 × 20))10
2 (16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1)10
3 2910
Binary Number, 111012 = Decimal Number, 2910

Binary to Hexadecimal
Steps
 Step 1 − Divide the binary digits into groups of four (starting from the right).
 Step 2 − Convert each group of four binary digits to one hexadecimal symbol.
Example
Binary Number, 101012
Calculating hexadecimal Equivalent
Steps Hexadecimal Number
1 0001 0101
2 110 510
3 1516
Binary Number, 101012 = Hexadecimal Number, 1516

Hexadecimal to Binary
Steps
 Step 1 − Convert each hexadecimal digit to a 4-digit binary number (the hexadecimal digits may
be treated as decimal for this conversion).
 Step 2 − Combine all the resulting binary groups (of 4 digits each) into a single binary number.

Example
Hexadecimal Number, 1516
Calculating Binary Equivalent
Step Hexadecimal Number Binary Number
Step 1 1516 110 510
Step 2 1516 00012 01012
Step 3 1516 000101012
Hexadecimal Number, 1516 = Binary Number, 101012

Representation of signed integers

In many cases we need to identify whether the number is positive or negative, so we use a signed
integer.
1. Sign-Magnitude Representation
A signed integer can just have the binary code for the value with an extra bit to define the sign.
This is referred to as ‘sign and magnitude representation’. For this the convention is to use a 0 to
represent ‘+’ and a 1 to represent ‘─’. For example,
Signed denary number to
+7 00000111
+1 00000001
+0 00000000
–0 100000000
–1 10000001
–7 10000111
–8 Not represented
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 Advantages:
 Easy to Read
Disadvantages:
 Two Representatives for Zero
Using our 4-bit Sign-Magnitude example we have,
+0 = 0000
─0 = 1000
 Arithmetic is difficult
Example, lets add Positive 2 to Negative 4, which we expect the answer to be Negative 2.
+2 0010
─4 1100
---- ------
─6 1110
The result is -6, which is not what we expect

Another Example lets add +2 to ─2, we expect the answer to be zero

+2 0010
─2 1010
---- -----
0 1100
The result of ─4, which again is not what we expect

2. Two's Complement Representation

Two's complement is the method computers use to represent Signed numbers.
The most-significant-bit is the sign bit.
 0 = positive value
 1 = negative value

To represent a positive denary integer value as the equivalent two’s complement binary form, the
process is as follows.

 Convert the denary value to a binary value.

 Add a 0 in front of this binary value to fill in the required number of bits.

The negative representation of a number is created by

 Start with the positive number
 Flip the bits (Change '0' to '1' and '1' to '0') to get 1’s complement
 Add the value 1 to get 2’s complement

One’s complement: the binary number obtained by subtracting each digit in a binary number from 1
Two’s complement: the one’s complement of a binary number, plus 1

Methods for converting a negative number expressed in two’s complement form to the corresponding
denary number
Consider the two’s complement binary number 10110001.
Method 1. Convert to the corresponding positive binary number then convert to denary before adding
the minus sign
 Converting 10110001 to two’s complement leaves unchanged the 1 in the least significant bit
position then changes all of the remaining bits to produce 01001111.

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  You ignore the leading zero and apply one of the methods from Section 1.01 to convert the
remaining binary to denary which gives 79.
 You add the minus sign to give −79.
Method 2. Sum the individual place values but treat the most significant bit as a negative value
You follow the approach illustrated in Table below to convert the original binary number 10110001 as
follows:

You now add the values in the bottom row to get −79.
Advantages:
 One value for Zero.
 Conversion from Positive to Negative and Negative to Positive numbers is easy and
consistent.
Example:
+ 2 = 0010
Flip the bits = 1101 and add 1 makes 1110 which is ─2
─2 = 1110
Flip the bits = 0001 and add 1 makes 0010 which is +2
 Arithmetic is easy.
Example, lets add Positive 2 to Negative 4, which we expect the answer to be Negative 2.
+2 0010
─4 1100
---- ------
─2 1110
The result is ─2 as expected!

Another Example lets add +2 to ─2, we expect the answer to be zero

+2 0010
─2 1110
---- -------
0 0000
The result of zero, as expected!
The carry of 1 from the sign bit is ignored.
Disadvantages:
 Difficult to read

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Binary addition

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