Number

Representation

1
Number System :: The Basics
 We are accustomed to using the so-called decimal number
system
 Ten digits :: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
 Every digit position has a weight which is a power of 10
 Base or radix is 10
Example:
234 = 2 x 102 + 3 x 101 + 4 x 100
250.67 = 2 x 102 + 5 x 101 + 0 x 100 + 6 x 10-1 + 7 x 10-
2

2
Binary Number System
 Two digits:
 0 and 1
 Every digit position has a weight which is a power of
2
 Base or radix is 2
 Example:
110 = 1 x 22 + 1 x 21 + 0 x 20
101.01 = 1 x 22 + 0 x 21 + 1 x 20 + 0 x 2-1 + 1 x 2-2

3
Positional Number Systems (General)
Decimal Numbers:
 10 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, Base or Radix is 10
 136.25 = 1  102 + 3  101 + 6  100 + 2  10–1 + 3  10–2

4
Positional Number Systems (General)
Decimal Numbers:
 10 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, Base or Radix is 10
 136.25 = 1  102 + 3  101 + 6  100 + 2  10–1 + 3  10–2
Binary Numbers:
 2 Symbols {0,1}, Base or Radix is 2
 101.01 = 1  22 + 0  21 + 1  20 + 0  2–1 + 1  2–2

5
Positional Number Systems (General)
Decimal Numbers:
 10 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, Base or Radix is 10
 136.25 = 1  102 + 3  101 + 6  100 + 2  10–1 + 5  10–2
Binary Numbers:
 2 Symbols {0,1}, Base or Radix is 2
 101.01 = 1  22 + 0  21 + 1  20 + 0  2–1 + 1  2–2
Octal Numbers:
 8 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7}, Base or Radix is 8
 621.03 = 6  82 + 2  81 + 1  80 + 0  8–1 + 3  8–2

6
Positional Number Systems (General)
Decimal Numbers:
 10 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, Base or Radix is 10
 136.25 = 1  102 + 3  101 + 6  100 + 2  10–1 + 3  10–2
Binary Numbers:
 2 Symbols {0,1}, Base or Radix is 2
 101.01 = 1  22 + 0  21 + 1  20 + 0  2–1 + 1  2–2
Octal Numbers:
 8 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7}, Base or Radix is 8
 621.03 = 6  82 + 2  81 + 1  80 + 0  8–1 + 3  8–2
Hexadecimal Numbers:
 16 Symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F}, Base is 16
6AF.3C = 6  162 + 10  161 + 15  160 + 3  16–1 + 12  16–2
7
Binary-to-Decimal Conversion
 Each digit position of a binary number has a weight
 Some power of 2
 A binary number:
B = bn-1 bn-2 …..b1 b0 . b-1 b-2 ….. b-m
Corresponding value in decimal:

D= bi 2 i
n-1

i = -m
8
Examples
101011  1x25 + 0x24 + 1x23 + 0x22 + 1x21 + 1x20
= 43
(101011)2 = (43)10

.0101  0x2-1 + 1x2-2 + 0x2-3 + 1x2-4

= .3125
(.0101)2 = (.3125)10

101.11  1x22 + 0x21 + 1x20 + 1x2-1 + 1x2-2

= 5.75

(101.11)2 = (5.75)10

9
Decimal to Binary: Integer Part
Consider the integer and fractional parts separately.
For the integer part:

Repeatedly divide the given number by 2, and go on

accumulating the remainders, until the number becomes zero.
Arrange the remainders in reverse order.

Base NumbRem

2 89
2 44 1
2 22 0
2 11 0
2 5 1
2 2 1
2 1 0
0 1

(89)10 = (1011001)2
10
Decimal to Binary: Integer Part
Consider the integer and fractional parts separately.
For the integer part:

Repeatedly divide the given number by 2, and go on

accumulating the remainders, until the number becomes zero.
Arrange the remainders in reverse order.

Base NumbRem
2 66
2 89 2 33 0
2 44 1 2 16 1
2 22 0 2 8 0
2 11 0 2 4 0
2 5 1 2 2 0
2 2 1 2 1 0
2 1 0 0 1
0 1
(66)10 = (1000010)2
(89)10 = (1011001)2
11
Decimal to Binary: Integer Part
Consider the integer and fractional parts separately.
For the integer part:

Repeatedly divide the given number by 2, and go on

accumulating the remainders, until the number becomes zero.
Arrange the remainders in reverse order.

Base NumbRem 2 239

2 66 2 119 1
2 89 2 33 0 2 59 1
2 44 1 2 16 1 2 29 1
2 22 0 2 8 0 2 14 1
2 11 0 2 4 0 2 7 0
2 5 1 2 2 0 2 3 1
2 2 1 2 1 0 2 1 1
2 1 0 0 1 0 1
0 1
(66)10 = (1000010)2
(89)10 = (1011001)2 (239)10 = (11101111)2
12
Decimal to Binary: Fraction Part
Repeatedly multiply the given fraction by 2.
Accumulate the integer part (0 or 1).
If the integer part is 1, chop it off.

Arrange the integer parts in the order they are obtained.

Example: 0.634
.634 x 2 = 1.268
.268 x 2 = 0.536
.536 x 2 = 1.072
.072 x 2 = 0.144
.144 x 2 = 0.288
:
:
(.634)10 = (.10100……)2
13
Decimal to Binary: Fraction Part
Repeatedly multiply the given fraction by 2.
Accumulate the integer part (0 or 1).
If the integer part is 1, chop it off.

Arrange the integer parts in the order they are obtained.

Example: 0.634 Example: 0.0625

.634 x 2 = 1.268 .0625 x 2 = 0.125
.268 x 2 = 0.536 .1250 x 2 = 0.250
.536 x 2 = 1.072 .2500 x 2 = 0.500
.072 x 2 = 0.144 .5000 x 2 = 1.000
.144 x 2 = 0.288 (.0625)10 = (.0001)2
:
:
(.634)10 = (.10100……)2
14
Decimal to Binary: Fraction Part
Repeatedly multiply the given fraction by 2.
Accumulate the integer part (0 or 1).
If the integer part is 1, chop it off.

Arrange the integer parts in the order they are obtained.

Example: 0.634 Example: 0.0625

.634 x 2 = 1.268 .0625 x 2 = 0.125
.268 x 2 = 0.536 .1250 x 2 = 0.250
.536 x 2 = 1.072 .2500 x 2 = 0.500
.072 x 2 = 0.144 .5000 x 2 = 1.000
.144 x 2 = 0.288 (.0625)10 = (.0001)2
: (37)10 = (100101)2
:
(.0625)10 = (.0001)2
(.634)10 = (.10100……)2
(37.0625)10 = (100101.0001)2
15
Hexadecimal Number System
 A compact way of representing binary numbers
 16 different symbols (radix = 16)

0  0000 8  1000
1  0001 9  1001
2  0010 A  1010
3  0011 B  1011
4  0100 C  1100
5  0101 D  1101
6  0110 E  1110
7  0111 F  1111

16
Binary-to-Hexadecimal
Conversion
 For the integer part,
 Scan the binary number from right to left
 Translate each group of four bits into the corresponding
hexadecimal digit
 Add leading zeros if necessary

 For the fractional part,

 Scan the binary number from left to right
 Translate each group of four bits into the corresponding
hexadecimal digit
 Add trailing zeros if necessary

17
Example
1. (1011 0100 0011)2 = (B43)16

2. (10 1010 0001)2 = (2A1)16

3. (.1000 010)2 = (.84)16

4. (101 . 0101 111)2 = (5.5E)16

18
Hexadecimal-to-Binary
Conversion
 Translate every hexadecimal digit into its
4-bit binary equivalent

 Examples:
(3A5)16 = (0011 1010 0101)2
(12.3D)16 = (0001 0010 . 0011 1101)2
(1.8)16 = (0001 . 1000)2

19
Unsigned Binary Numbers
 An n-bit binary number
B = bn-1bn-2 …. b2b1b0
 2n distinct combinations are possible, 0 to 2n-1.
 For example, for n = 3, there are 8 distinct combinations
 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111
 Range of numbers that can be represented
n=8  0 to 28-1 (255)
n=16  0 to 216-1 (65535)
n=32  0 to 232-1 (4294967295)

20
Signed Integer Representation
 Many of the numerical data items that are used in a
program are signed (positive or negative)
 Question:: How to represent sign?

 Three possible approaches:

 Sign-magnitude representation
 One’s complement representation
 Two’s complement representation

21
Sign-magnitude Representation
 For an n-bit number representation
 The most significant bit (MSB) indicates sign
0  positive
1  negative
 The remaining n-1 bits represent magnitude

bn-1 bn-2 b1 b0

Sign Magnitude
22
Contd.
 Range of numbers that can be represented:
Maximum :: + (2n-1 – 1)
Minimum ::  (2n-1 – 1)

 A problem:
Two different representations of zero
+0  0 000….0
-0  1 000….0

23
One’s Complement
Representation
 Basic idea:
 Positive numbers are represented exactly as in sign-
magnitude form
 Negative numbers are represented in 1’s complement
form
 How to compute the 1’s complement of a number?
 Complement every bit of the number (10 and 01)
 MSB will indicate the sign of the number
0  positive
1  negative

24
Example :: n=4
0000  +0 1000  -7
0001  +1 1001  -6
0010  +2 1010  -5
0011  +3 1011  -4
0100  +4 1100  -3
0101  +5 1101  -2
0110  +6 1110  -1
0111  +7 1111  -0
To find the representation of, say, -4, first note that
+4 = 0100
-4 = 1’s complement of 0100 = 1011 25
Contd.
 Range of numbers that can be represented:
Maximum :: + (2n-1 – 1)
Minimum ::  (2n-1 – 1)
 A problem:
Two different representations of zero.
+0  0 000….0
-0  1 111….1
 Advantage of 1’s complement representation
 Subtraction can be done using addition
 Leads to substantial saving in circuitry

26
Two’s Complement
Representation
 Basic idea:
 Positive numbers are represented exactly as in sign-
magnitude form
 Negative numbers are represented in 2’s complement form
 How to compute the 2’s complement of a number?
 Complement every bit of the number (10 and 01), and
then add one to the resulting number
 MSB will indicate the sign of the number
0  positive
1  negative

27
Example : n=4 1000  -8
0000  +0 1001  -7
0001  +1 1010  -6
0010  +2 1011  -5
0011  +3 1100  -4
0100  +4 1101  -3
0101  +5 1110  -2
0110  +6 1111  -1
0111  +7
To find the representation of, say, -4, first note that
+4 = 0100
-4 = 2’s complement of 0100 = 1011+1 = 1100
Rule : Value = – msb*2(n–1) + [unsigned value of rest]
Example: 0110 = 0 + 6 = 6 1110 = – 8 + 6 = – 2 28
Contd.
 Range of numbers that can be represented:
Maximum :: + (2n-1 – 1)
Minimum ::  2n-1
 Advantage:
 Unique representation of zero
 Subtraction can be done using addition
 Leads to substantial saving in circuitry
 Almost all computers today use the 2’s complement
representation for storing negative numbers

29
Contd.
 In C
 short int
 16 bits  + (215-1) to -215
 int or long int
 32 bits  + (231-1) to -231
 long long int
 64 bits  + (263-1) to -263

30
Adding Binary Numbers
 Basic Rules:  Example:
 0+0=0
 0+1=1 01101001
 1+0=1 00110100
 1+1=0 (carry 1) -------------
10011101

31
Subtraction Using Addition :: 1’s
Complement
 How to compute A – B ?
 Compute the 1’s complement of B (say, B1).
 Compute R = A + B1
 If the carry obtained after addition is ‘1’
 Add the carry back to R (called end-around carry)
 That is, R = R + 1

 The result is a positive number

Else
 The result is negative, and is in 1’s complement form

32
Example 1 :: 6 – 2
1’s complement of 2 = 1101

Assume 4-bit
6 :: 0110 A representations
-2 :: 1101 B1 Since there is a carry, it is
1 0011 R added back to the result
1 The result is positive
0100  +4
End-around
carry

33
Example 2 :: 3 – 5
1’s complement of 5 = 1010

3 :: 0011 A
-5 :: 1010 B1
Assume 4-bit representations
1101 R
Since there is no carry, the
result is negative
1101 is the 1’s complement of
0010, that is, it represents –2
-2

34
Subtraction Using Addition :: 2’s
Complement
 How to compute A – B ?
 Compute the 2’s complement of B (say, B2)
 Compute R = A + B2
 If the carry obtained after addition is ‘1’
 Ignore the carry
 The result is a positive number

Else
 The result is negative, and is in 2’s complement form

35
 Example 1 :: 6 – 2
2’s complement of 2 = 1101 + 1 = 1110

6 :: 0110 A Assume 4-bit

-2 :: 1110 B2 representations

1 0100 R Presence of carry indicates

that the result is positive
No need to add the end-
around carry like in 1’s
Ignore carry complement
+4

36
Example 2 :: 3 – 5
2’s complement of 5 = 1010 + 1 = 1011

3 :: 0011 A
-5 :: 1011 B2 Assume 4-bit representations

1110 R Since there is no carry, the

result is negative
1110 is the 2’s complement of
0010, that is, it represents –2
-2

37
2’s complement arithmetic: More
Examples
 Example 1: 18-11 = ?
 18 is represented as 00010010
 11 is represented as 00001011
 1’s complement of 11 is 11110100
 2’s complement of 11 is 11110101
 Add 18 to 2’s complement of 11

00010010
+ 11110101 00000111 is 7
----------------
00000111 (with a carry of 1
which is ignored) 38
 Example 2: 7 - 9 = ?
 7 is represented as 00000111
 9 is represented as 00001001
 1’s complement of 9 is 11110110
 2’s complement of 9 is 11110111
 Add 7 to 2’s complement of 9

00000111
+ 11110111 11111110 is -2
----------------
11111110 (with a carry of 0
which is ignored) 39
Overflow/Underflow:
Adding two +ve (-ve) numbers should not produce a
–ve (+ve) number. If it does, overflow (underflow) occurs

40
Overflow/Underflow:
Adding two +ve (-ve) numbers should not produce a
–ve (+ve) number. If it does, overflow (underflow) occurs

Another equivalent condition : carry in and carry

out from Most Significant Bit (MSB) differ.

41
Overflow/Underflow:
Adding two +ve (-ve) numbers should not produce a
–ve (+ve) number. If it does, overflow (underflow) occurs

Another equivalent condition : carry in and carry

out from Most Significant Bit (MSB) differ.

(64) 01000000
( 4) 00000100
--------------
(68) 01000100
carry (out)(in)
0 0
42
Overflow/Underflow:
Adding two +ve (-ve) numbers should not produce a
–ve (+ve) number. If it does, overflow (underflow) occurs

Another equivalent condition : carry in and carry

out from Most Significant Bit (MSB) differ.

(64) 01000000 (64) 01000000

( 4) 00000100 (96) 01100000
-------------- --------------
(68) 01000100 (-96) 10100000
carry (out)(in) carry out in differ:
0 0 0 1 overflow
43
Floating-point Numbers
 The representations discussed so far applies only to
integers
 Cannot represent numbers with fractional parts
 We can assume a decimal point before a signed
number
 In that case, pure fractions (without integer parts)
can be represented
 We can also assume the decimal point somewhere in
between
 This lacks flexibility
 Very large and very small numbers cannot be
represented
44
Representation of Floating-Point
Numbers
 A floating-point number F is represented by a doublet
<M,E> :
F = M x BE
 B  exponent base (usually 2)

 M  mantissa

 E  exponent

 M is usually represented in 2’s complement form, with

an implied binary point before it
 For example,
In decimal, 0.235 x 106
In binary, 0.101011 x 20110

45
Example :: 32-bit representation
M E
24 8
M represents a 2’s complement fraction
1 > M > -1
 E represents the exponent (in 2’s complement form)
127 > E > -128
 Points to note:
 The number of significant digits depends on the
number of bits in M
 6 significant digits for 24-bit mantissa

 The range of the number depends on the number of

bits in E
 1038 to 10-38 for 8-bit exponent.
46
A Warning
 The representation for floating-point numbers as
shown is just for illustration
 The actual representation is a little more
complex
 Example: IEEE 754 Floating Point format

47
 IEEE 754 Floating-Point Format
(Single Precision)
S E (Exponent) M (Mantissa)
(31) (30 … 23) (22 … 0)

S: Sign (0 is +ve, 1 is –ve)

E: Exponent (More bits gives a higher range)
M: Mantissa (More bits means higher precision)
[8 bytes are used for double precision]

Value of a Normal Number:

(-1)S (1.0 + 0.M)  2(E – 127)
48
An example
S E (Exponent) M (Mantissa)
(31) (30 … 23) (22 … 0)

1 10001100 11011000000000000000000

Value of a Normal Number:

= (-1)S (1.0 + 0.M)  2(E – 127)
= (-1)1 (1.0 + 0.1101100)  2(10001100 – 1111111)

=  1.1101100  21101 =  11101100000000

=  15104.0 ( in decimal)

49
 Representing 0.3
S E (Exponent) M (Mantissa)
(31) (30 … 23) (22 … 0)

0.3 (decimal)
= 0.0100100100100100100100100…
= 1.00100100100100100100100100…  2 2
= 1.00100100100100100100100100…  2 125 127
= (-1)S (1.0 + 0.M)  2(E – 127)

0 01111101 00100100100100100100100

What are the largest and smallest numbers that

can be represented in this scheme?
50
Representing 0
S E (Exponent) M (Mantissa)
(31) (30 … 23) (22 … 0)

0 00000000 00000000000000000000000
1 00000000 00000000000000000000000

Representing Inf ()

0 11111111 00000000000000000000000

1 11111111 00000000000000000000000

Representing NaN (Not a Number)

0 11111111 Non zero
1 11111111 Non zero
51
Representation of Characters
 Many applications have to deal with non-numerical data.
 Characters and strings
 There must be a standard mechanism to represent
alphanumeric and other characters in memory
 Three standards in use:
 Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
(EBCDIC)
 Used in older IBM machines

 American Standard Code for Information Interchange

(ASCII)
 Most widely used today

 UNICODE
 Used to represent all international characters.

 Used by Java
52
 ASCII Code
 Each individual character is numerically encoded into a unique 7-
bit binary code
A total of 27 or 128 different characters
A character is normally encoded in a byte (8 bits), with the MSB
not been used.
 The binary encoding of the characters follow a regular ordering
 Digits
are ordered consecutively in their proper numerical
sequence (0 to 9)
 Letters (uppercase and lowercase) are arranged consecutively
in their proper alphabetic order

53
Some Common ASCII Codes
‘A’ :: 41 (H) 65 (D) ‘0’ :: 30 (H) 48 (D)
‘B’ :: 42 (H) 66 (D) ‘1’ :: 31 (H) 49 (D)
……….. ………..
‘Z’ :: 5A (H) 90 (D) ‘9’ :: 39 (H) 57 (D)

‘a’ :: 61 (H) 97 (D) ‘(‘ :: 28 (H) 40 (D)

‘b’ :: 62 (H) 98 (D) ‘+’ :: 2B (H) 43 (D)
……….. ‘?’ :: 3F (H) 63 (D)
‘z’ :: 7A (H) 122 (D) ‘\n’ :: 0A (H) 10 (D)
‘\0’ :: 00 (H) 00 (D)
54
 Character Strings
 Two ways of representing a sequence of characters in memory

 The first location5contains

H e thel number
l o of characters in the string,
followed by the actual characters

 The characters follow one another, and is terminated by a special

delimiter H e l l o 

55
String Representation in C
 In C, the second approach is used
 The ‘\0’ character is used as the string delimiter

 Example:
“Hello”  H e l l o ‘\0’

 A null string “” occupies one byte in memory.

 Only the ‘\0’ character

56