Revision as of 06:39, 18 November 2010

A byte represents 8 bits of data. A bit of data is simply a 1 or 0. Bytes are typically described by two hexadecimal characters.

Their values go 0-9 and A-F. A represents ten. So when you see FF:

F is fifteen. So you multiply 15 * 16 because it is in the 16's placeholder. This gives you the value 240. You add that to the second F (15) to get 255.

This is the highest value of a byte. As such a byte can only hold integers 0-255, which is 256 values because it starts at zero.

Reference

 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   A   B   C   D   E   F
 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15