Programming
programming
encoding
fundamentals
What is Hexadecimal?
Definition
Hexadecimal (hex, base-16) is a numbering system that uses 16 digits: 0-9 and A-F. Each hex digit represents 4 bits, so two hex digits represent one byte (0-255). Hex is commonly prefixed with 0x (in code) or # (in colors).
Why It Matters
Hexadecimal is used everywhere in computing: color codes (#FF0000), memory addresses, MAC addresses, hash digests, binary file inspection, and Unicode code points (U+0041 = A). Understanding hex is fundamental to low-level programming and debugging.