Chapter 2: Number systems and

conversions

ENP/classes préparatoires/1ère
année/informatique 1

Djaafri
 Introduction : Decimal system

Set of 10 symbols: {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

• Exemple 1: a integer number

2 1 0
185 (10) = 100 + 80 + 5
= 1 × 100 + 8 × 10 + 5 × 1
2 1 0
= 1 × 10 + 8 × 10 + 5 × 10
 Principle

• B is base for number system:

▪ B is integer and b>1.
▪ a system uses B sequential integers symbols
including 0
🡺 {0, 1, 2, 3, ..., B-1}
▪ These symbols are called the digits of the
system.
 Principle
• Any integer N is represented in base B by a
sequence of digits :
N = an an-1... a2 a1 a0

• In base B, N is also written as:

N = an × Bn + an-1× B n-1 + ... + a2 × B2 + a1 × B1
+ a0 × B0
→ ai is digit in ith position
→ Bi is the base B raised to the power i
 Binary number system

Set of 2 symbols: {0, 1}

• Exemple :
3210
3 2 1 0
1101 (2) = 1 × 2 + 1 × 2 + 0 × 2 + 1 × 2
= 8 +4 +0 +1
1101(2) = 13
 Binary number system

0 0 9 1001
1 1 10 1010
2 10 11 1011
3 11 12 1100
4 100 13 1101
5 101 14 1110
6 110 15 1111
7 111 16 10000
8 1000 .. ..
 Binary number system
1 20 1
10 21 2
100 22 4
1000 23 8
10000 24 16
100000 25 32
1000000 26 64
.. .. ..

10112 = 1000 + 11 = 1000 + 10 + 1

= 8 + 2 +1
= 1110
100102 = 10000 + 10
= 16 + 2
= 1810
 Octal number system
Set of 8 symbols: {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
• Exemple :
2 1 0
2 1 0
613 (8) = 6 × 8 + 1 × 8 + 3 × 8
= 6 × 64 + 1 × 8 + 3 × 1
= 384 +8 +3
613 (8) = 395
 Hexadecimal number system

Set of 16 symbols: {0..9, A..F}

• Exemple :
2 1 0
2 1 0
E09 (16) = E × 16 + 0 × 16 + 9 × 16
= 14 × 256 +0 +9
E09 (16) = 3593
 Binary, hexa and octal roles
• Binary system is used to treat and stock information
on computer
• Binary representation of information is very verbose,
so hexadecimal and octal numbers system are used
to reduce the binary representation
• Example:
A same value represented in base 2, 8 an 16
binary 101 0110 0000 0111 1011 1101
octal 25403675
hexadecimal 5607BD
Conversion from any base x to decimal
• Method:
1. number each digit from right to left starting from 0
2. Multiply each digit by the base-x raising to the position number
obtained in step 1
3. Sum all values obtained in step 02
• Example
20213 33 32 31 30
2 0 2 1

20213= 2×27 + 0×9 + 2×3 +1×1 =6110

4135 52 51 50
4 1 3

4135 = 4×25 + 1×5 + 3×1 =10810

Conversion from Decimal to any base x
• Method 1
1. Successive division on x
2. Take the remainders from the last to the first
3. Stop when quotient equals 0.
• Example
4410=(?)2
44 ÷ 2 = 22 rem 0
22 ÷ 2 = 11 rem 0
11 ÷ 2 = 5 rem 1
5 ÷2= 2 rem 1
2 ÷2= 1 rem 0
1 ÷2= 0 rem 1

4410= 1011002
Conversion from Decimal to any base x
• Method 2 : need power of x values

• Example
4410=(?)2 25 24 23 22 21 20
32 16 8 4 2 1
1 0 1 1 0 0

44 = 32+8+4
= 1×25 + 0×24 + 1×23 + 1×22 + 0×21 + 0×20

44 10=1011002
 binary to Hex & Hex to binary
Need to use a look up table

Decimal Hexadecimal Binary Decimal Hexadecimal Binary

0 0 0000 10 A 1010
1 1 0001 11 B 1011
2 2 0010 12 C 1100
3 3 0011 13 D 1101
4 4 0100 14 E 1110
5 5 0101 15 F 1111
6 6 0110
7 7 0111
8 8 1000
9 9 1001
 Conversion from Binary to Hexa
• Method
Replace each 4 binary digits with its hexadecimal equivalent

• Example
101101100110110011=(?)16

0010 1101 1001 1011 0011

2 D 9 B 3

1011011001101100112= 2D9B316
 Conversion from Hexa to Binary
• Method
Break up each hexadecimal digit into 4 binary digit. Right to left

• Example
1DF8316 = (?)2

1 D F 8 3

0001 1101 1111 1000 0011

 Binary to Octal & Octal to Binary
Need to use a lookup table
Decimal Octal Binary
0 0 000
1 1 001
2 2 010
3 3 011
4 4 100
5 5 101
6 6 110
7 7 111
 Conversion from Binary to Octal
• Method
Replace each 3 binary digits with its octal equivalent

• Example
1011011001101100112= (?)8

101 101 100 110 110 011

5 5 4 6 6 3

1011011001101100112= 5546638
 Conversion from Octal to Binary
• Method
Break up each octal digit into 3 binary digit. Right to left

• Example
74038 = (?)2

7 4 0 3

111 100 000 011

74038 = 1111000000112
Summary conversion base 2, base 8
and base 16
Binary

Octal Hexa

Example
127038 =(?)16
1→001
2→010
127038 → 7→111 →001 010 111 000 0112
0→000
3→011
0001→1
0101→5
001 0101 1100 0011 → 1100→C
→15C316
0011→3
127038 =15C316
 Conversion from Base-x to Base-y
• Method
Use conversion from base-x to Decimal, then from Deciaml to Base-y

• Example
314 5= (?)2
Base-5 to decimal:
3145 = 3×52 + 1×51 + 4×50 = 84
Decimal to base-2
8410 = 64+16+4
= 2 6 + 24 + 22
= 1×26 + 0×25 + 1×24 + 0×23 + 1×22 + 0×21 + 0×20
8410 = 10101002

Then 3145 = 10101002

Arithmetic with binary base system
Rules

1
0 0 1 1 1..
+ + + + +
0 1 0 1 1..
---- ---- ---- ---- ----
=0 =1 =1 =10 =11

carry

• You need know binary values

102 → 2
112 → 3
 addition
1 1 1 1 1
1 0 1 1 0 1

+ 1 0 1 1 1

= 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

101101 + 10111 = 1000100

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 0

+ 1 0 1 1

= 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
111110 + 1011 = 1001001
 Substraction
1 10 1 11 10 10

- 1 1 10 11 11 1

= 0 1 0 1 0 1
101100 - 10111 = 10101
1 1 1 1 11 10

- 1 10 11 1

= 1 1 0 0 1 1
101100 - 10111 = 10101
 Principle with real number
• Exemple 2: a real number
2 1 0 -1 -2 -3
185,437 in 10 base
=
100 + 80 + 5 + 0,4 + 0,03 + 0,007
=
1 × 102 + 8 × 101 + 5 × 100 + 4 × 10-1 + 3 × 10-2 + 7 × 10-3