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Introduction to Data Representation

The document provides an overview of data representation in digital computers, focusing on the binary number system, which uses 0 and 1 to represent data. It categorizes data into three types: alphabetic, numeric, and alphanumeric, and explains the concepts of bits and bytes as units of data measurement. Additionally, it introduces various number systems, including binary, octal, and hexadecimal, detailing their bases and symbols.

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Legesse Samuel
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5 views

Introduction to Data Representation

The document provides an overview of data representation in digital computers, focusing on the binary number system, which uses 0 and 1 to represent data. It categorizes data into three types: alphabetic, numeric, and alphanumeric, and explains the concepts of bits and bytes as units of data measurement. Additionally, it introduces various number systems, including binary, octal, and hexadecimal, detailing their bases and symbols.

Uploaded by

Legesse Samuel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to Data Representation

A digital computer works with binary number system. The binary number system has only two
digits 0 and 1. Inside the computer, binary number is represented by an electrical pulse. 1 means
a pulse of electricity and 0 means no pulse.
Data is divided into three types:-
1. Alphabetic data,
2. Numeric data and
3. Alphanumeric data.

Alphabetic data

Alphabetic data is used to represent the alphabets. It consists of capital letters A–Z, small
letters a–z and blank space etc. Alphabetic data is also called non-numeric data.
Numeric data
 Numeric data consists of ten digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or (0-9)
 Two signs + and – and decimal point.
Alphanumeric data
Alphanumeric data is used to represent alphabetic data, numeric data, special characters and
symbols.
What are special characters?

One digit in binary number system is called a bit


What is bit? It is the smallest unit of data measurement in the computer.
It is zero or 1.
Byte: - it is combination of eight bits. Byte is the basic unit that is used to represent the
alphabetic, numeric and alphanumeric data. Eight zero or eight 1 say to be one byte.
All the data that is entered into a computer is first converted into the binary form and after
processing, it is again converted to human readable form

A computer system’s data/information storage capacity is represented by bytes, kilobytes,


megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes.
1Bit= 0 or 1
1 Byte = 8 bits
1 Kilobyte (KB) = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes
1 Megabyte (MB) = 1024 KB = 210 × 210 bytes = 220 bytes
1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB = 210 × 220 bytes = 230 bytes
1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 GB = 210 × 230 bytes = 240 bytes
Number Systems
There are different types of number systems that are used to represent data. You are already
familiar with the decimal number system. The other useful number systems are binary, octal and
hexadecimal. You may regard each digit as a box that can hold a number.
Let us discuss the various number systems:
Binary Number System
In the binary number system, there can only be two choices for representing data—either a "0" or
a "1".
The base or radix of the binary number system is 2.

Octal Number System


In the octal number system, there can be eight possibilities:
"0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7".
The base or radix of the octal number system is 8.

Hexadecimal Number System


In the hexadecimal number system, we have 16 symbols:
"0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", and "F".
The base or radix of the hexadecimal number system is 16.

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