Learning And Understanding the Basics of Binary Codes

We are living in a world that is mostly driven by digital devices. However, have you ever wondered how exactly these devices perform given tasks with great efficiency? How they process and store the information. 

Let us tell you that at the core of every digital device lies a fundamental system, widely known as binary code. It solely relies on only two numbers; 0 & 1. By getting detailed information about this system, you can efficiently understand how computers work. 

In this blog post, we are going to discuss all the important information about binary codes, so, stick around with us till the end. 

What Are Binary Codes?

As we mentioned earlier, Binary codes are the fundamental language consisting of two digits 0 and 1 and computers use them to process and understand programming instructions. Every piece of information whether it is text or an image is converted into a series of these 2 digits.

For example, if we upload an image on a computer, it can read this image by converting it into a series of digits like 01111000001000011.

How do Binary Codes Work?

Binary refers to a base-2 numeral system – meaning that each number represents a power of 2. Keep in mind that the rightmost digit represents 2^{0, the} next one 2^1, and this goes on.

The formula: (1×2³)+(0×2²)+(0×2¹)+(0×2⁰)

Applications Of Binary Codes

There are multiple applications of binary codes. In this section, we will discuss 4 major ones.

1. Digital Circuits

Digital circuits use logic gates such as AND, NOR, NOT, OR, etc. These gates’ outputs and inputs are represented using 0,1 binary codes. Digit 0 represents that the circuit is OFF and digit 1 represents that the circuit is ON.

2. Data Encryption & Management

Cryptographic algorithms use binary codes for the encryption and decryption of data. This ensures that the transmitted and stored data is secure.

Moreover, by using binary codes, data is represented in more condensed formats, reducing the storage spaces and enabling efficient data management.

3. Digital Signal Processing

Digital audio and video processing rely on binary codes, where raw data is encoded and decoded using algorithms to ensure optimal storage, playback, or transmission.

4. Calculation

This is obvious – almost all digital devices that are used for calculation use binary numbers. For example, if we talk about the most common device, the “calculator”. When we add two to three numbers in the calculator, first, it transforms the numbers into binary. Then it converts the result back into a decimal number format.

Conversion of Binary Codes into Different Forms

It is important to note that binary codes can be converted into different forms that are listed below. 

• Text
• Hexadecimal
• Decimal
• Octal

However, in this blog post, we are going to show you how binary code can be converted into text for human understanding. Here is the approach you need to follow. 

First of all, divide the binary code into 8-bit (1-byte) chunks. 8-bits means eight digits per set, check out the example below. 

Sample Binary code: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

Now, it's time to convert each 8-bit set into decimal form using the following base-2 formula. 

Decimal= (1×2⁷)+(0×2⁶)+(0×2⁵)+(0×2⁴)+(1×2³)+(0×2²)+(0×2¹)+(0×2⁰)

These are the outputs of each set after applying the aforementioned formula: 

• 01001000 → 72
• 01100101 → 101
• 01101100 → 108
• 01101100 → 108
• 01101111 → 111

You have the numbers now; all you need to do is simply use an ASCII chart to find relevant alphabets for these numbers. 

Upon comparison, this is what we got: 

• 72 → H
• 101 → e
• 108 → l
• 108 → l
• 111 → o

So, the binary code 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 converts to “HELLO.”

However, this conversion approach seems difficult, error-prone, and also time-consuming…right? But don’t worry there is also a quick and effective solution, which is using an online Binary translator. 

There is a huge variety of binary translators available on the internet. You can go with any, this is because almost every translator provides the option to convert the binary code into text, decimal, hexadecimal, and octal. 

For a better understanding, we are going to convert the same code into text using a free binary translator. The results can be seen in the attachment below.

Tool link: https://www.prepostseo.com/tool/binary-translator

Using such a tool, you seamlessly convert binary code (whether it is short or long) into different forms with 100% accuracy.

Conclusion

Computers understand all instructions and information in the binary language consisting of two digits 0 and 1. Though, this code is only understood by computers, not humans, converting them into decimals is very important. Moreover, binary codes have multiple use cases. For example, you can use them for calculation and digital signal processing.

These codes can be easily converted into different forms i.e., text, decimal, etc. either manually or using an online binary translator tool.  In this detailed blog post, we have tried our best to discuss every bit of detail about them, hopefully, you will find this article interesting.