Help. Does anyone understand how to convert normal numbers into hexadecimal ones, and can explain the process in words of no more than 2 syllables. TIA -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)
In Oldbloke triped: Yes and No in that order! The basic principle on converting a number to hexadecimal (more than two syllables therefore explanation failed!) is to repeatedly divide it by 16 until the answer is less than 16, with the remainder at each stage forming the appropriate figure for each power of 16. For example 255 / 16 = 15 remainder 15, therefore the hexadecimal equivalent is FF, or put another way 15 * 16 + 15. Similarly, 240 / 16 is 15 remainder 0, so the hex value of F0, and so on. The really easy way to do this sort of conversions is to use a calculator with built-in hex->dec-> bin conversions! What number(s) do you want converting to hex? Cheers
Windows Calculator can do it. Click on the 'advanced' option. Surely a Google would reveal something? With a bit of thought I can try to remember (did Hex and Binary in school) but it would take a bit of thought.
When you were at school doing long multiplication the teacher probably drew column headings on the board like this: 100's 10's 1's So, for example, 321 was 3 hundreds plus 2 tens plus 1 one. In hex the headings would be: 256's 16's 1's So 321 is 1 256s remainder 65 and 65 is 4 times 16, remainder 1 So, in hex, 321 is 141 Sometimes you need to use a number great than 9, for example 10 is 0 16's plus 10 1's, so in hex we count 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F making 10=A, 11=B, 12=C and so on. Does any of this make sense to you? -- AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas) Kawasaki ZX-6R J1 BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL) BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR# The speccy Geordie twat.
Phew, numbers are: 256 280 300 600 8345 Many thanks (my lad's college stuff) -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)
We're deliberating, will get right back to you. -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)
No, seems we're as thick as pigshit here, just don't get it. -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)
I'd use either a hax calculator or a decent editor, with hex display functionality. Interesting, though, because I've been happy using hex for 20-odd years I've nevere really thought about how to do it long-hand, as it were. A quick google, however [1] reveals, amongst others: http://www.rwc.uc.edu/koehler/comath/11.html which does, I'm afraid, use one or two three-syllable words [1] Which I decided not to try and pass off as my own work.
I've never come across that notation. Normally you'd always group them into two-digit blocks (because each pair would be a single byte on most computers, but you knew that) it would therefore be 04D2, and the 'x' might be appended thus '04D2'x.
Sorry m'lud, I'll have to plead the whoosh. -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)
Ah. I'm off to the pub now. I'll have a look at the thread in the AM. I'm pretty sure that your question will have been answered. When you start getting down and dirty in to raw integer or floating point data, a little knowledge of the data that you are converting would help. Anyway, the pub beckons.
Easy method - Windows calculator, go to Scientific view, type in your decimal number and then click the Hex radio button. Pen and paper back-to-skool method - 1. Work out your powers of 16 until you get a number bigger than the decimal number you want to convert 16 ^ 0 = 1 16 ^ 1 = 16 16 ^ 2 = 256 16 ^ 3 = 4096 16 ^ 4 = 65536 etc... 2. Write them out in descending order left to right as column headers 65536 4096 256 16 1 --------------------------------- 3. Find the biggest number in the list that's smaller than the decimal number you want to convert. Let's say we want to convert decimal 500. The biggest number in the list of column headers that's smaller than this is 256. 4. Work out how many 256s go into 500. The answer is 1. Write this under the 256 column 65536 4096 256 16 1 --------------------------------- 1 5. Work out the remainder of 256 into 500 - it's 244. Take 244, and plug it in to step 3 - in other words the biggest number that will go into 244 on the list is 16, and it goes in 15 times, remainder 4. Write 15 under the 16 column, and then go back to step 3 again with the remainder, 4. 65536 4096 256 16 1 --------------------------------- 1 15 6. Now you've just got 4 left as the remainder, 1 is the only column header number that's less than 4, and it goes into 4 (duh) 4 times. 65536 4096 256 16 1 --------------------------------- 1 15 4 7. Now you have the answer, sort-of - (1)(15)(4). Because Hex is base 16, and we only have 10 arabic numerals in the normal run of things, we need a way of representing digits greater than 9. We use the letters of the alphabet instead, so A is (10), B is (11), etc. All you have to do now is take the answer you have above, but write it out using hex "digits" Decimal Hex (Binary value) 0 0 0000 1 1 0001 2 2 0010 3 3 0011 4 4 0100 5 5 0101 6 6 0110 7 7 0111 8 8 1000 9 9 1001 10 a 1010 11 b 1011 12 c 1100 13 d 1101 14 e 1110 15 f 1111 In other words 65536 4096 256 16 1 --------------------------------- 1 15 4 1 f 4 So, 500 decimal is 1f4 hex. Ta-da!! Hex to binary and vice versa is a doddle. Each hex digit represents a group of exactly 4 binary digits (bits) according to the table above. So, 1f4 is 0001 1111 0100
He's just winding you up with techie talk. I'm down in his neck of the woods tomorrow night, would you like me to deliver a slap on your behalf? -- AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas) Kawasaki ZX-6R J1 BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL) BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR# The speccy Geordie twat.
Oldbloke wrote : I'll try adding(sic) a little. It is just a different number base. We normally count in decimal (ten fingers) 0 to 9 (base 10), but you can count in any number base you like. Hexadecimal (base 16) is just a more convenient (more compact) way to describe the binary numbering system as applied within a digital computer, where things can only be on or off. If you arranged 4 switches in a row, you could count all the way from (in binary/base 2) 0000 (all off) to 1111 which is all of them turned on. In other words there would be 16 different ways in which you could set those switches. Hexadecimal is based on 16 numbered 0 to 15(F) - remember zero is a number. The four switches would be equivalent to a 4 bit nibble. 8 switches can be set in 256 different ways, all the way from 00H to FFH, this would be an 8 bit byte. In the early days of computers an Octal numbering system was in use (base 8). In the following table D is decimal, H is Hexadecimal, O is Octal D = H = O 0 = 0 = 0 1 = 1 = 1 2 = 2 = 2 3 = 3 = 2 4 = 4 = 3 5 = 5 = 5 6 = 6 = 6 7 = 7 = 7 8 = 8 =10 9 = 9 =11 10= A =12 11= B =13 12= C =14 13= D =16 14= E =17 15= F =20 With 16 switches/ 16bits we count a little higher.... So... 000FH is the same as 15D, 0010H is the same as 16D 00FFH is the same as 255D FFFFH is the same as 65,535D
Actually in "Time" Alexander Waugh makes a good case for the earliest counting systems being base-12, counting flanges on the fingers rather than fingers themselves. He reasons that using the thumb of your left hand you can count the 12 flanges on the other four fingers and then use the same system on the right hand to keep track of how many 12's you've counted. He puts this forward as the basis for why 12 is so important in timekeeping (12 months in the year, 12 hour clock, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute). -- AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas) Kawasaki ZX-6R J1 BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL) BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR# The speccy Geordie twat.
Just imagine you had 8 fingers on each hand. You count in multiples of 16 rather than 10. But numbers only go up to 9 in single figures so you have to add A to F on the end to get to 16.
Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, AndrewR One of the programmers at my place used to have an email .sig that said "If God didn't want us to count in octal he wouldn't have given us four fingers and a parity thumb." Made Oi larf, that did. -- Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41 ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner", Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
