Question 1

What's the difference between binary, octal, decimal and hex?

Accepted Answer

These are different numeral systems (bases). Binary (base-2) uses digits 0-1, octal (base-8) uses 0-7, decimal (base-10) uses 0-9, and hexadecimal (base-16) uses 0-9 and A-F. Hex is widely used in programming because each hex digit represents exactly 4 binary bits.

Question 2

What is two's complement?

Accepted Answer

Two's complement is a way to represent negative numbers in binary. The most significant bit indicates the sign — 0 for positive, 1 for negative. For an 8-bit signed integer, values range from -128 to 127. This tool shows the two's complement interpretation when you enable signed mode.

Question 3

How do I convert text to binary?

Accepted Answer

Type or paste ASCII text into the Text field. Each character's code point is converted to binary, hex, octal and decimal in real time. The tool uses UTF-8 encoding so emoji and non-ASCII characters also work correctly.

Question 4

Is there a limit on number size?

Accepted Answer

Numbers are handled with JavaScript's BigInt internally, so you can convert values up to 2^53 - 1 losslessly in regular mode. For larger values the tool still works but rounds to JavaScript's safe integer limit unless you use the BigInt mode toggle.