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Start your free trialSimbarashe Chikaura
8,979 PointsByte - what exactly is it?
I thought a byte was a value that contained 8 binary digits, e.g., 100111001 Why then are we saying a byte can take values from 0 - 255. I'm a bit confused.
2 Answers
Steven Parker
231,198 PointsThe "0 - 255" spec is the decimal equivalent of the binary values. For unsigned values, 00000000
is the smallest binary byte value, which is 0 in decimal; and 11111111
is the largest, which is 255 in decimal.
Simbarashe Chikaura
8,979 PointsThis was a lot of help. Thank you.
Simbarashe Chikaura
8,979 PointsSimbarashe Chikaura
8,979 PointsOk. So in other words, a byte has about 256 permutations of bit numbers?
Steven Parker
231,198 PointsSteven Parker
231,198 PointsThere are exactly 256 (2^8) permutations of 8 binary digits.