Hex Converter

Hexadecimal (base-16) is widely used in programming for several reasons: It's more compact than binary (4 bits = 1 hex digit), easier to read than long binary strings, and aligns well with byte boundaries (2 hex digits = 1 byte). Common uses include memory addressing, color codes in web design (e.g., #FF5733), debugging memory dumps, network protocol analysis, file format specifications, and representing binary data in human-readable form.

The "0x" prefix is a notation convention used in many programming languages (C, C++, Java, JavaScript, etc.) to indicate that a number is hexadecimal. This helps distinguish hex values from decimal numbers. For example, "0x10" means hexadecimal 10 (which is 16 in decimal), while just "10" would be decimal 10. Similarly, "0xFF" is 255 in decimal. Other notations include "#" for CSS colors and "&H" in some BASIC dialects.

UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding for Unicode characters. Basic ASCII characters (0-127) use 1 byte in UTF-8, so they appear as 2 hex digits (e.g., 'A' = 0x41). Non-ASCII characters (like emojis,中文, etc.) use 2-4 bytes in UTF-8, appearing as 4-8 hex digits. For example, the rocket emoji 🚀 is encoded as 0xF0 0x9F 0x9A 0x80 (4 bytes). Our tool handles this correctly, showing the proper byte sequence for any Unicode character.

Hexadecimal is base-16, binary is base-2, and decimal is base-10. Each hex digit represents exactly 4 binary bits (a "nibble"). For example: hex 'A' (10 decimal) = binary 1010. Two hex digits represent one byte (8 bits). Conversion is straightforward: hex 0x1F = binary 00011111 = decimal 31. This relationship makes hex ideal for representing binary data compactly while maintaining easy conversion to/from binary. Programmers often use hex when working with bitmasks, flags, and low-level data structures.