Bits, Bytes, Data Streams

Bits, Bytes & Patterns

A bit is the number one (1) or zero (0).   A group of eight bits makes a byte.  

1 bit = 2 patterns, 3 bits = 8 patterns, ... 8 bits = 256 patterns.   2^n patterns.   1 byte = 8 bits = 256 patterns.  

Hexadecimal is a different way to display binary data.   0x41 = 0b01000001 = 'A' = 65 (decimal).  

Sequence of Bytes

The table below shows a sequence of 4 bytes with the values interpreted as a hexadecimal number, a decimal number,an ASCII character, and in the binary format (different bases).   Binary base is 2, decimal base is 10, hexadecimal base is 16.  

Data is typically transmitted between two computers as bytes.   A buffer (or array list) is a group of bytes.   Represented in hexadecimal, a group of bytes could be: FF F0 0F 11.   Working with Bytes

byte data[] = { 0xFF, 0xF0, 0x0F, 0x11 };
// identical: { 255, 240, 15, 17 };
// identical: { B11111111, B11110000, B00001111, B00010001 };

Transmitting numbers as bytes