Uses of hexadecimal

1. Introduction

As explained in an earlier section, hexadecimal is a more person-friendly format compared to pure binary. And as such you will see hex codes appearing in a number of areas where people are likely to have to view or use the information rather than a computer.

This section will introduce you to some of them. They include

• HTML colour definition
• MAC addresses
• Assembly language mnemonics
• Machine code abbreviation

When a computer has to deal with hexadecimal then it simply stores it internally as a binary number.

For example a compiler will parse (i.e. translate) assembly language source code as written by a person and store the result internally as binary.