Chapter two

Data Representation in Computers

We enter data into a computer or review (see) output data from a computer using the
letter of alphabet, various special symbols, and the numerals in the decimal number
system. But since computer is an electronic device, which understands electrical flow
(signal), there is no letter, symbol or number inside the computer. Computer works with
binary numbers. As a semiconductor is conducting or isn’t conducting; a switch is closed
or opened. So data are represented in the form of a code that can have a corresponding
electrical signal.
4.1 Units of Data Representation
When data is stored, processed or communicated within the computer system, it is packed
in units. Arranged from the smallest to the largest, the units are called bit, byte, and word;
These units are based on the binary number system.
BIT:
 Bits are the smallest units and can convey only two possible states 0 or 1;
 Bit stands for Binary digits;
 A bit is a single element in the computer, on a disk that stands for either “ON”
indicating 1 or “OFF” indicating 0;
In the computer “ON” is represented by the existence of current and “OFF” is represented
by the non-existence of current. On a magnetic disk, the same information is stored by
changing the polarity of magnetized particles on the disk’s surface.
BYTE:
Bits can be organized into large units to make them represent more and meaningful
information. This large unit is called a byte and is the basic “unit of data representation”
in a computer system. The commonly used byte contains 8 bits. Since each bit has two
states and there are 8 bits in a byte, the total amount of data that can be represented using
a single byte is 28 or 256 possible combinations. Each byte can represent a character (a
character is either a letter, a number or a special symbol such as +,-,?,*, $, etc).
A byte is then used as a unit of measurement in the computer memory, processing unit,
external storage and during communication. If the computer memory is 524288 byte, this

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is expressed in short by saying 512KB, where KB stands for kilobyte.
- 1 Kilobyte (1KB) is 210 or 1024 bytes
- 1 Megabyte (MB) is 220 bytes or 210 kilobytes
- 1 Gigabyte (GB) is 230 bytes or 220 kilobytes or 210 megabytes
WORD:
Word refers the number of bits that a computer process at a time or a transmission media
transmits at a time. Although bytes can store or transmit information, the process can
even be faster if more than one byte is processed at a once. A combination of bytes, then
form a “word”. A word can contain one, two, three or four bytes based on the capacity of
the computer. Word length is usually given in bits. We say that a computer is an 8-bit, a
16 bit, a 32 bit or a 64 bit computer to indicate that the amount of data it can process at a
time. The larger the word length a computer has the more powerful and faster it is.
4.2 Concept of Number Systems and Binary Arithmetic
Since the early days of human civilization, people have been using their fingers, sticks,
and other things for counting. As daily activities became more complex, numbers became
more important in trade, time, distance, and in all spheres of human life. A number
system defines a set of values used to represent quantity. There are various number
systems e.g. decimal, binary, octal, hexadecimal, etc each differs one another by the
number of symbols used in the system. Each numbering system used different symbols to
represent a given quantity.
For a computer, everything is a number whether it may be numbers, alphabets,
punctuation marks, its own instructions, etc. The number systems that are generally used
by computers are: decimal, binary, octal, and hexadecimal.
4.2.1 The Decimal Number System
The primary number system used is a base ten number system or decimal number system.
The Decimal number system is based on the ten different digits or symbols
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).
Starting at the decimal point and moving to the left, each position is represented by the
base (radix) value (10 for decimal) raised to power. The power starts at Zero for the
position just to the left of the decimal point. The power incremented for each positions
that continues to the left. Moving to the right of the decimal point is just like moving to

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the left except that we will need to place a minus sign in front of each power.
For example: (8762)10 = (8*103) + (7*102) + (6*101) + (2*100)
(0.475)10= (4*10-1) + (7*10-2) + (5*10-3)
4.2.2 The Binary number system
Computers do not use the ten digits of the decimal system for counting and arithmetic.
Their internal structure (mainly the CPU and memory) are made up of millions of tiny
switches that can be either in an ON or OFF states. Two digits, 0 and 1, are used to refer
for these two states.
Binary number system is based on the two different digits; 0 and 1. With binary number
system, it is very easier for the hardware to represent the data. Binary number system is
base two number system.
For example: (01100)2 , (10110.011)2 , etc
4.2.3 Octal number system
The octal number system with its eight symbols (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) is a base 8 system.
For example: (322)8, (10.25)8, etc
4.2.4 Hexadecimal number system
Hexadecimal number system is another number system that works exactly like the
decimal and binary number systems, except that the base is 16. It uses 16 symbols (0-9,
and A-F characters to represent 10-15).
For example: (8F0)16 , (D.45)16, etc
4.2.5 Conversion between Number Systems
Computers use binary numbers for internal data representation whereas they use decimal
numbers externally. Therefore, there should be some conversion between number
systems in order to represent data in a computer that is originally represented in other
number systems. Some conversion methods are discussed below.
Decimal to Binary
It is important to note that every decimal number system has its equivalent binary
number. For example

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Binary Decimal Binary Decimal
0 0 101 5
01 1 110 6
10 2 111 7
11 3 1000 8
100 4 1001 9 etc.
Conversion from binary to its equivalent decimal and from decimal to its equivalent
binary is possible. The method, which is used for the conversion of decimal into binary,
is often called as the remainder method. This method involves the following steps.
- Begin by dividing the decimal number by 2 (the base of binary number system)
- Note the remainder separately as the rightmost digit of the binary equivalent
- Continually repeat the process of dividing by 2 until quotient is zero and keep writing
the remainders after each step of division (these remainders will either be 0 or 1)
- Finally, when no more division can occur, write down the remainders in reverse order
(last remainder written first)
Example: Determine the binary equivalent of (44)10

2 44 Remainder

2 22 0 MSB (Most Significant Bit)

2 11 0

2 5 1

2 2 1
0
2 1
1
LSB (List Significant Bit)
Taking the remainder in reverse order we have 101100. Thus the binary equivalent of
(44)10 is (101100)2
In general to convert a decimal number X to a number in base M, divide X by M, store
the remainder, again divide the quotient by M, store the remainder, and continue until the
quotient is 0. And concatenate (collect) the remainders starting from the last up to the
first.

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Example: Convert 7810 to base eight (Octal)
7810=1168
Example: Convert 3010 to base sixteen (hexadecimal)
3010=1E16
Binary to Decimal
In the binary to decimal conversion, each digit of the binary number is multiplied by its
weighted position, and each of the weighted values is added together to get the decimal
number.
Example: Determine the decimal equivalent of (100100)2
1*25 + 0*24 + 0*23 + 1*22 + 0*21 +0*20 = 32+4 =36
Therefore, the decimal equivalent of (100100)2 is 36
In general To convert a number X consists of digits X1 X2 X3 …Xn in base m to decimal;
simply expand the number with base m. That is
(X1X2X3…Xn) m =X1*mn-1+X2*mn-2 +X3*mn-3+...+ Xi*mn-i+… Xn-1m1+Xn*m0
=Y10
Example: convert (234)8 to decimal
=2*82 + 3*81 + 4*80 = 128+24+4 = 156
Example: convert (A1B) 16 to decimal
=A*162 + 1*161 + B*160 = 2587
Binary (base2) to Octal (base 8) or hexadecimal (base16) and vice versa
To convert a number in binary to octal group three binary digits together starting from the
last digit (right) and if there are no enough digits add zeros to the front end (left) and find
the corresponding Octal of each group.
Example: Convert 1001001 to octal Convert 101101001 to octal
1001001=001,001,001 101101001 =101,101,001
= 1118 =5518

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To convert binary to hexadecimal group four binary digits together starting from right
and if there are no enough digits add zeros at the left.
Example: Convert 111100100 to Convert 111001111 to Hexadecimal
hexadecimal 111001111 =0001 1100 1111
111100100 =0001 1110 0100 =1 12 15
=1 14 4 =1 B F
=1 E 4 =(1BF)16
= (1E4)16
To convert from Octal to binary, convert each octal digit to its equivalent 3 bit binary
starting from right.
Example: Convert (675) eight to binary Convert 231eight to binary

675eight =110 111 101 231eight = 010 011 001

=(110111101)two =(10011001)two

To convert from Hexadecimal to binary convert each hex. Digit to its equivalent 4-bit
binary starting from right.
Example: Convert 23416 to binary Convert 2AC to binary
23416 =0010 0011 0100 2AC16 =0010 1010 1100
= 10001101002 =10101011002

Octal to hexadecimal and Vise versa

To convert from Octal to hexadecimal, first we have to convert to binary and the binary
to hexadecimal. To convert from hexadecimal to Octal, first we have to convert to binary
and then the binary to Octal.
Example: Convert 2358 to hexadecimal Convert (1A)16 to Octal
2388=010 011 101 1A=0001 1010
=0000 1001 1101 =000 011 010
=0 9 13 = 0 3 2
=9D16 =328

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Summary of conversion from One base to another base
From base To base Method
2 10 Expand binary number in powers of 2
10 2 Factor the decimal number by 2
2 8 Group 3 binary digits together
8 2 Each Octal digit is converted to 3 binary digits
2 16 Group 4 binary digits together
16 2 Each hexadecimal digit is converted to 4 binary digits
8 10 Expand the number in powers of 8
10 8 Factor the decimal number by 8
16 10 Expand the number in powers of 16
10 16 Factor the decimal number by 16
8 16 Go from 8 …….2…….16
16 8 Go from 16 …….2…….8

Converting Decimal Number with Fractions to Binary

- First change the integer part to its equivalent binary.
- Multiply the fractional part by 2 and take out the integer value, and again multiply
the fractional part of the result by 2 and take out the integer part, continue this
until the product is 0.
- Collect the integer values from top to bottom & concatenate with the integer part.
Example. A) Convert 12.2510 to binary 1100.01
B) Convert3.1875 to binary 11.0011
Converting Binary with Fraction to Decimal
To convert a binary number Y1Y2Y3Y4Yn.d1d2d3…dm to decimal
- first convert the integer part to decimal by using
y1 y2 y3 y4…yn=y1*2n-1+y2*2n-2+….yj*2n-j+….+yn-1*21+yn*20=Q and
- Convert the fractional part to decimal by using
d1d2d3…dm=d1*2-1+d2*2-2+d3*2-3+…+dj*2-j+..+dm*2-m=R

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 - Then decimal equivalence of y1 y2 y3 y4…..yn.d1d2…dm will be Q+R
where Q is the integer part and R is the fractional part.

Ex1 : Convert 11001-0101 to decimal Ex 2: Convert 1000.1 to decimal

11001 = 1x24 + 1x23 1000 = 1+23 +0+0+0=8
+0x22+0x21+1x20= 16+8+1= 25= Q 1= 1x2-1=½ = 0.5
0101 =0x2-1+1x2-2+0x2-3+1x2-4 1000.1 = 8.510
= 0+¼+0+1/16 = 0.3125 = R
=>11001.0101 = 25.3125.
Conversion from Binary with Fraction to Octal/Hexadecimal
 Group three/four digits together starting from the last digit of the integer part, and if
there is less number of digits add some zeros in the beginning.
 Group three/ four digits together starting from the first digit of the fractional part, and
if there is less number of digits add some zeros to the end.
 Covert each group of the integer and the fractional part to their equivalent
Octal/hexadecimal and collect the results by adding point (.) to separate the integer part
from the fractional part.
Ex 1:- Covert 1010.01112 to octal
Ex2:- Covert 1110101.101112 to hexadecimal
Conversion from Octal or Hexadecimal with Fraction to Binary
 Convert each Octal/hexadecimal digit to its equivalent 3/4-bit binary digit.
 Collect the binary sequences by separating the integer part binaries from the
fractional part binaries with point (.)
Conversion from Octal with Fraction to Hexadecimal
 To convert from Octal to hexadecimal, first convert the Octal to binary and then the
binary to hexadecimal
Conversion from Hexadecimal with Fraction to Octal
 To convert from hexadecimal to Octal, first convert the hexadecimal to binary and
then the binary to Octal.

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Conversion from Octal/Hexadecimal with Fraction to Decimal.
 To convert from Octal/hexadecimal to decimal, first convert to binary and –then the
binary to decimal.
4.2.6 Binary Arithmetic
Arithmetic in binary is much like arithmetic in other numeral systems. Addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division can be performed on binary numerals. The
simplest arithmetic operation in binary is addition. Adding two single-digit binary
numbers is relatively simple:
0+0=0
0+1=1
1+0=1
1 + 1 = 10 (carry:1)
Adding two "1" values produces the value "10" (spoken as "one-zero"), equivalent to the
decimal value 2. This is similar to what happens in decimal when certain single-digit
numbers are added together; if the result equals or exceeds the value of the radix (10), the
digit to the left is incremented: e. g 5 + 5 = 10 , 7 + 9 = 16 .This is known as carrying in
most numeral systems. When the result of an addition exceeds the value of the radix, the
procedure is to "carry the one" to the left, adding it to the next positional value. Carrying
works the same way in binary:
1 1 1 1 1 (carried digits)
01101
+10111
-------------
=100100
In this example, two numerals are being added together: 011012 (13 decimal) and 101112
(23 decimal). The top row shows the carry bits used. Starting in the rightmost column,
1 + 1 = 102. The 1 is carried to the left, and the 0 is written at the bottom of the rightmost
column. The second column from the right is added: 1 + 0 + 1 = 102 again; the 1 is
carried, and 0 is written at the bottom. The third column: 1 + 1 + 1 = 112. This time, a 1 is
carried, and a 1 is written in the bottom row. Proceeding like this gives the final answer
1001002 (36 decimal).

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Subtraction works in much the same way:
0−0=0
0 − 1 = 1 (with borrow)
1−0=1
1−1=0
One binary numeral can be subtracted from another as follows:
** * (starred columns are borrowed from)
100101
− 1011
----------------
=011010
The following steps are involved:
- First, for the least significant bit(the right most bit) , 1-1 is 0
- For the next bit, 0-1 cannot be computed since the subtrahend is smaller than
the minuend. Borrow 1 from the third bit to form the binary number 10
(decimal 2) and do the subtraction. The operation is 10-1=1 which in decimal
number system is 2-1=1
- For the third bit, since we borrowed 1 for the second bit, we have 0-0 that is 0
- For the forth bit again, we cannot perform the subtraction. However the fifth
bit in the minuend is zero, so we must borrow from the sixth bit. This makes
the fifth bit 10 (decimal 2). Borrowing from the fifth bit makes it 1 and the
fourth bit become 10 (decimal 2). Now the subtraction in binary is 10-1=1
which is the result of the fourth bit.
- For the fifth bit, we now have 1-0=1
- Since we borrowed 1 from the sixth bit for the fourth bit, so for the sixth bit,
the subtraction is 0-0=0
Multiplication in binary is similar to its decimal counterpart. Two numbers A and B can
be multiplied by partial products: for each digit in B, the product of that digit in A is
calculated and written on a new line, shifted leftward so that its rightmost digit lines up
with the digit in B that was used. The sum of all these partial products gives the final
result.

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Since there are only two digits in binary, there are only two possible outcomes of each
partial multiplication:
 If the digit in B is 0, the partial product is also 0
 If the digit in B is 1, the partial product is equal to A
For example, the binary numbers 1011 and 1010 are multiplied as follows:
1 0 1 1 (A)
× 1 0 1 0 (B)
---------
0 0 0 0 ← Corresponds to a zero in B
+ 1011 ← Corresponds to a one in B
+ 0000
+1011
---------------
=1101110
Binary Division is again similar to its decimal counterpart:
__________
101 |11011
Here, the divisor is 1012, or 5 decimal, while the dividend is 110112, or 27 decimal. The
procedure is the same as that of decimal long division; here, the divisor 1012 goes into the
first three digits 1102 of the dividend one time, so a "1" is written on the top line. This
result is multiplied by the divisor, and subtracted from the first three digits of the
dividend; the next digit (a "1") is included to obtain a new three-digit sequence:
1
__________
101 |11011
−101
-----
011
The procedure is then repeated with the new sequence, continuing until the digits in the
dividend have been exhausted:

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 101
__________
101 |11011
−101
-----
011
−000
-----
111
−101
-----
10
Thus, the quotient of 110112 divided by 1012 is 1012, as shown on the top line, while the
remainder, shown on the bottom line, is 102. In decimal, 27 divided by 5 is 5, with a
remainder of 2.
4.3 CODING METHODS
In today’s technology, the binary number system is used by the computer system to
represent the data in the computer in understandable format. There are a lot of ways to
represent, numeric, alphabetic, and special characters in computer’s internal storage area.
It is possible to represent any of the character in our language in a way as a series of
electrical switches in arranged manner. These switch arrangements can therefore be
coded as a series of equivalent arrangements of bits. In this way, every character can be
represented by a combination of bits that is different from any other combination.
There are different coding systems that convert one or more character sets into computer
codes. Some are: EBCDIC, BCD, ASCII-7 & ASCII-8, Unicode, etc.
In these encodings, binary coding schemes separate the characters, known as character
set, in to zones. Zone groups characters together so as to make the coding scheme to
decipher and the data easier to process. With in each zone, the individual characters are
identified by digit code.
EBCDIC: Pronounced as “Eb-see-dick” and stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal
Interchange Code.
It is an 8-bit coding scheme: (00000000 – 11111111), i.e. it uses 8 bits to represent each
character. It accommodates to code 28 or 256 different characters. This provides a unique

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code for each decimal value 0 to 9 , each upper and lower case English letter (for total of
52), and for a variety of special characters. Since it is an 8-bit code, each group of the
eight bits makes up one alphabetic, numeric, or special character. It is a standard coding
scheme for the large computers.
Coding Examples
EBCDIC
Character zone (4 Bit) digit (4 Bit) Character Zone Digit
0-9 15 0-9
a-i 8 1-9 a 1000 0001
j-r 9 1-9 b 1000 0010
s-z 10 2-9 A 1100 0001
A-I 12 1-9 B 1100 0010
J-R 13 1-9 0 1111 0000
S-Z 14 2-9 9 1111 1001

BCD (Binary Coded Decimal)

There were two types of BCD coding techniques used before. The 4 bit BCD, which represent
any digit of decimal number by four bits of binary numbers.
If you want to represent 219 using 4 bit BCD you have to say 0010 0001 1001
 4 bits BCD numbers are useful whenever decimal information is transferred into or out of a
digital system. Examples of BCD systems are electronic ousters, digital voltmeter, and
digital clocks; their circuits can work with BCD numbers.
 BCD’s are easy for conversion but slower for processing than binary. And they have limited
numbers because with BCD we can represent only numbers 0000 for 0 and 1001 for 9 .
BCD (6-bits)
It uses 6-bits to code a Character (2 for zone bit and 4 for digit bit) it can represent 26 = 64
characters (10 digits, 26 capital characters and some other special characters).

Some Coding Examples

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Character zone (2 Bit) digit(4 Bit)
0-9 0 0-9
A-I 3 1-9

Character Zone digits

A 11 0001
Q 10 1000
8 00 1000
9 00 1001
ASCII-7
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII-7 used
widely before the introduction of ASCII-8 (the Extended ASCII). It uses 7 bits to
represent a character. With the seven bits, 27( or 128) different characters can be coded
(0000000-1111111). It has 3 zone and 4 digit bits positions
Coding examples:
Charter zone (3 bit) digit(4 bit) $ 010 0100
0-9 3 0-9 % 010 0101
A-O 4 1-15 A 100 0001
P-Z 5 1-10 a 110 0001
b 110 0010

The ASCII System

Also referred as ASCII-8 or Extended ASCII. It is commonly used in the transmission of
data through data communication and is used almost exclusively to represent data
internally in microcomputers. ASCII uses 8-bits to represent alphanumeric characters
(letters, digits and special symbols). With the 8-bits, ASCII can represent 28 or 256
different characters (00000000-11111111). It assigns 4 bits for the zone and the rest for
the digit.

Coding Examples:

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Character zone (3 BIT) digit (4 BIT) a 0110 0001
0-9 3 0-9 b 0110 0010
A-O 4 1-15 A 0100 0001
P-Z 5 0-10 B 0100 0010
a-o 6 1-15 ? 0011 1111
p-z 7 0-10 + 0010 1011
1 0011 0001
Unicode
Unicode has started to replace ASCII and other coding methods at all levels. It enables
users to handle not only practically any script and language used on this planet; it also
supports a comprehensive set of mathematical and technical symbols to simplify
scientific information exchange. Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language.
Unicode was originally designed to be a 16-bit code, but it was extended so that currently
code positions are expressed as integers in the hexadecimal range 0..10FFFF (decimal
0..1 114 111).

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