Binary Decimal and Hexadecimal numbers and conversions
Binary number system is a number system which is based on 2. What exactly is "based on 2"?? Well, you have only two characters ("0" and "1") to define and represent the entire numbers in binary number system.
Decimal number system is a number system which is based on 10. What exactly is "based on 10"?? Well, you have 10 characters ("0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9") to to define and represent the entire numbers in decimal number system.
Hexadecimal number system is a number system which is based on 16. What exactly is "based on 16"?? Well, you have 16 characters ("0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F") to to define and represent the entire numbers in Hexadecimal number system.
How is this possible? Read below.
Binary Number System
Binary numbers allow us to represent any number using just two characters "0" and "1". Binary numbers are represented based on the powers of 2. To understand this concept more clearly, read the below table and memorize these numbers. This table is limited to 8 bit binary numbers and their conversions, because you will be dealing with 8 bit binary numbers more in your CCNA study (when you learn IPv4 addresses, subnetting, VLSM, Supernetting (Route Summarization) etc).
If you want to learn the conversion larger bit-size binary numbers, just add more powers of 2, like 512, 1024, 2048 etc.
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
In the above table, right most bit (20) is known as the least significant bit and left most bit (27) is known as the most significant bit.
Whenever you are asked to convert from decimal number to binary number, or binary to decimal, remember the above table. As a network and network security engineer, you will need to do a lot of conversions from binary numbers to decimal numbers and back.
Example 1 - Convert 172 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant.
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 25 (=32), 23 (=8), and 22 (=4) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 172.
That is, 128+32+8+4 = 172
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 172 is 10101100.
Example 2 - Convert 192 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 192.
That is, 128+64=192.
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 192 is 11000000.
Example 3 - Convert 168 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 25 (=32) and 23 (=8) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 168.
That is, 128+32+8 = 168
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 168 is 10101000.
Example 4 - Convert 224 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64) and 25 (=32) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 224.
That is, 128+64+32 = 224
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 224 is 11100000.
Example 5 - Convert 240 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64), 25 (=32) and 24 (=16) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 240.
That is, 128+64+32+16 = 240
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 240 is 11110000.
Example 6 - Convert 248 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64), 25 (=32), 24 (=16) and 23 (=8) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 248.
That is, 128+64+32+16+8 = 248
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 248 is 11111000.
Example 7 - Convert 252 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64), 25 (=32), 24 (=16), 23 (=8) and 22 (=4) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 252.
That is, 128+64+32+16+8+4 = 252
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 252 is 11111100.
Example 8 - Convert 254 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64), 25 (=32), 24 (=16), 23 (=8), 22 (=4) and 21 (=2) bits "on" and remaining bits "off", you will get 254.
That is, 128+64+32+16+8+4+2 = 254
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 254 is 11111110.
Example 9 - Convert 255 (in decimals) to its binary equivalant
Answer:
| Powers of 2 (for 8 bits) | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Binary Bits ("0" or "1") | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Decimal values | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
From the above table, if you make 27 (=128), 26 (=64), 25 (=32), 24 (=16), 23 (=8), 22 (=4), 21 (=2) and 20 (=1) bits "on" (all the bits "on") you will get 255.
That is, 128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1 = 255
Therefore, the binary equivalant of 255 is 11111111. Now every bits in an eight bit binary number is "on". When you keep every bits in a binary number "on", you will get the maximum possible decimal value for that binary number.
The maximum possible decimal value for an eight bit binary number is 255.
Hexadecimal Number System
Hexadecimal number system is a number system which is based on 16. You have 16 characters ("0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F") to to define and represent the entire numbers in Hexadecimal number system.
In Hexadecimal number system, 10 (in decimals) is represented by character "A", 11 (in decimals) is represented by character "B", 12 (in decimals) is represented by character "C", 13 (in decimals) is represented by character "D", 14 (in decimals) is represented by character "E" and 15 (in decimals) is represented by character "F".
Note: We use "0x" before the Hexadecimal number to indicate that it is a hexadecimal number, not a decimal number.
In decimal number system (which is based on 10 we use in our day-to-day life), the numbers are grouped based on 10. We count from 0 to 9, 10 to 19, 20 to 29 and so on.
In Hexadecimal number system, we count from 0x0 to 0xF (0 to 9 by using hexadecimal numbers 0x0 to 0x9 and 10 to 15 by using hexadecimal numbers "0xA" to "0xF"), 0x10 (16 in decimals) to 0x1F (31 in decimals), 0x20 (32 in decimals) to 0x2F (47 in decimals) and so on.
Refer the following table for a more clear view.
| Decimal | Binary | Hexadecimal |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0x0 |
| 1 | 1 | 0x1 |
| 2 | 10 | 0x2 |
| 3 | 11 | 0x3 |
| 4 | 100 | 0x4 |
| 5 | 101 | 0x5 |
| 6 | 110 | 0x6 |
| 7 | 111 | 0x7 |
| 8 | 1000 | 0x8 |
| 9 | 1001 | 0x9 |
| 10 | 1010 | 0xA |
| 11 | 1011 | 0xB |
| 12 | 1100 | 0xC |
| 13 | 1101 | 0xD |
| 14 | 1110 | 0xE |
| 15 | 1111 | 0xF |
| 16 | 10000 | 0x10 |
| 17 | 10001 | 0x11 |
| 18 | 10010 | 0x12 |
| 19 | 10011 | 0x13 |
| 20 | 10100 | 0x14 |
| 21 | 10101 | 0x15 |
| 22 | 10110 | 0x16 |
| 23 | 10111 | 0x17 |
| 24 | 11000 | 0x18 |
| 25 | 11001 | 0x19 |
| 26 | 11010 | 0x1A |
| 27 | 11011 | 0x1B |
| 28 | 11100 | 0x1C |
| 29 | 11101 | 0x1D |
| 30 | 11110 | 0x1E |
| 31 | 11111 | 0x1F |
| 32 | 100000 | 0x20 |
| 33 | 100001 | 0x21 |
| 34 | 100010 | 0x22 |
| 35 | 100011 | 0x23 |
| 36 | 100100 | 0x24 |
| 37 | 100101 | 0x25 |
| 38 | 100110 | 0x26 |
| 39 | 100111 | 0x27 |
| 40 | 101000 | 0x28 |
| 41 | 101001 | 0x29 |
| 42 | 101010 | 0x2A |
| 43 | 101011 | 0x2B |
| 44 | 101100 | 0x2C |
| 45 | 101101 | 0x2D |
| 46 | 101110 | 0x2E |
| 47 | 101111 | 0x2F |
| 48 | 110000 | 0x30 |
| 49 | 110001 | 0x31 |
As a network and network security engineer, you need to concentrate more on binary to hexadecimal conversion of 16-bit binary numbers, because IPv6 addresses are represented as blocks of 16-bit in hexadecimal numbers.
In a Binary to hexadecimal conversions, one hexadecimal digit resembles a group of four contiguous binary bits, called a nibble. The minimum possible decimal value for a 4-bit binary number is 0 and maximum is 15 (0xF).
Example 1 - Convert the following 16-bit binary number 0010001100000001 to hexadecimals.
Answer:
| Nibbles | 0010 | 0011 | 0000 | 0001 |
| Hexadecimals | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
The hexadecimal equivalent of 16-bit binary number 0010001100000001 is 0x2301
Example 2 - Convert the following 16-bit binary number 0010100101000101 to hexadecimals.
Answer:
| Nibbles | 0010 | 1001 | 0100 | 0101 |
| Hexadecimals | 2 | 9 | 4 | 5 |
The hexadecimal equivalent of 16-bit binary number 0010100101000101 is 0x2945
Example 3 - Convert the following 16-bit binary number 0011111111100111 to hexadecimals.
Answer:
| Nibbles | 0011 | 1111 | 1110 | 0111 |
| Hexadecimals | 3 | F | E | 7 |
The hexadecimal equivalent of 16-bit binary number 0011111111100111 is 0x3FE7
Example 4 - Convert the following 16-bit binary number 1111111010000000 to hexadecimals.
Answer:
| Nibbles | 1111 | 1110 | 1000 | 0000 |
| Hexadecimals | F | E | 8 | 0 |
The hexadecimal equivalent of 16-bit binary number 1111111010000000 is 0xFE80