What is a hexadecimal number? Why is it important?

A hexadecimal number is the base-16 numbers and probably the largest numbers right now. The hexadecimal number include A, B, C, D, E, F, and 0 to 9. Many technical people believe that hexadecimal numbers are the advanced version of binary numbers. Many modern organizations have also started using hexadecimal numbers in place of zeros and ones.

Along with that, hexadecimal numbers are also used to enhance the security of a website. Many developers convert the decimal number to hexadecimal and then save that number to the database. And when they want to retrieve that number, they convert hexadecimal to decimal and then show it to the users. This translation is useful for embedded systems because decimal numbers are used in the embedded systems heavily.

As a matter of fact, humans can easily read and recognize decimal numbers. So, decimal numbers can be a threat to humans. That is why hexadecimal to decimal conversion is really important. Apart from that, below are various advantages and disadvantages of the hexadecimal number.

The biggest advantage of hexadecimal number is that it is really compact. This is a base-16 number and for that reason, they can represent a number in the least amount of characters. As decimal is a base-10 number and it is a base-16 number which includes around 16 different characters. Apart from that, binary includes just zeros and ones and for that reason, to represent a number in binary takes eight times more numbers than the hexadecimal numbers.

Due to this advantage, many large organizations have started to use hex numbers instead of zeros and ones. Along with that, I want to add that computer processors and other electronics systems can process hex numbers easily and it makes these systems work fastest. So, the companies that prefer speed in a processor prefer hex numbers over any other numbers.

There are a few disadvantages of hex numbers as well. As discussed above, hexadecimal numbers are base-16 and they include 16 numbers. For that reason, this number occupies more amount of space on a processor. For smaller products, memory issues may occur if they use hexadecimal. But the kind of processor available today, memory is not an issue at all. The processors have memory in Terabytes.

Along with that, hexadecimal numbers are used by the MAC address to generate a unique ID for each electronics system in the network. Not only that but hex numbers are also used by advanced computer and electronic systems. Many technical people predict that hexadecimal numbers are the future of the numbering system. If you are looking to make your future in this field, then it is really important to gain proper knowledge about the same.

So, it is a detailed explanation of hexadecimal numbers. After reading this article, if you want to share your thoughts then do share them with us by dropping a comment below. We would be glad to answer your queries.