The word “Hexadecimal” means sixteen because this type of digital numbering system uses 16 different digits from 0-to-9, and A-to-F. Hexadecimal Numbers group binary numbers into sets of four digits.
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Then in the Hexadecimal Numbering System we use the numbers from 0 to 9 and the capital letters A to F to represent its Binary or Decimal number equivalent, starting with the least significant digit at the right hand side.
As we have just said, binary strings can be quite long and difficult to read, but we can make life easier by splitting these large binary numbers up into even groups to make them much easier to write down and understand. For example, the following group of binary digits 1101 0101 1100 11112 are much easier to read and understand than 11010101110011112 when they are all bunched up together.
In the everyday use of the decimal numbering system we use groups of three digits or 000’s from the right hand side to make a very large number such as a million or trillion, easier for us to understand and the same is also true in digital systems.
Hexadecimal Numbers is a more complex system than using just binary or decimal and is mainly used when dealing with computers and memory address locations. By dividing a binary number up into groups of 4 bits, each group or set of 4 digits can now have a possible value of between “0000” (0) and “1111” ( 8+4+2+1 = 15 ) giving a total of 16 different number combinations from 0 to 15. Don’t forget that “0” is also a valid digit.
We remember from our first tutorial about Binary Numbers that a 4-bit group of digits is called a “nibble” and as 4-bits are also required to produce a hexadecimal number, a hex digit can also be thought of as a nibble, or half-a-byte. Then two hexadecimal numbers are required to produce one full byte ranging from 00 to FF.
Also, since 16 in the decimal system is the fourth power of 2 ( or 24 ), there is a direct relationship between the numbers 2 and 16 so one hex digit has a value equal to four binary digits so now q is equal to “16”.
Because of this relationship, four digits in a binary number can be represented with a single hexadecimal digit. This makes conversion between binary and hexadecimal numbers very easy, and hexadecimal can be used to write large binary numbers with much fewer digits.
The numbers 0 to 9 are still used as in the original decimal system, but the numbers from 10 to 15 are now represented by capital letters of the alphabet from A to F inclusive and the relationship between decimal, binary and hexadecimal is given below.