Binary & Hex Converter

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What Is Binary?

Binary is the fundamental language of computers - everything digital ultimately boils down to 1s and 0s. Each digit in binary represents a "bit" (binary digit), and 8 bits make a "byte."

When you type "Hello", your computer actually sees: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

Each 8-bit group represents one character using ASCII encoding.

Number Systems Explained

Why different bases?

• Binary: How computers actually work
• Hex: Compact way to represent binary (1 hex digit = 4 bits)
• Octal: Historical use in Unix file permissions
• Decimal: What humans use daily

Why Hexadecimal?

Hexadecimal (hex) is popular in programming because it's a compact way to represent binary:

Binary:  0100 1000  0110 0101  0110 1100
Hex:        4 8        6 5        6 C

You'll see hex everywhere:

• Colors: #FF5733 (RGB values)
• Memory addresses: 0x7FFE1234
• MAC addresses: 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E
• Unicode: U+1F600 (😀)

What Is Base64?

Base64 encodes binary data using 64 printable characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /). It's used when you need to transmit binary data over text-only channels.

Common uses:

• Email attachments (MIME encoding)
• Data URLs in HTML/CSS
• API authentication tokens
• Storing binary in JSON/XML

Practical Applications

For Developers:

• Debug binary protocols
• Analyze network packets
• Work with encryption/encoding
• Understand character encoding issues

For Students:

• Learn computer science fundamentals
• Practice number system conversions
• Understand ASCII/Unicode

For CTF/Security:

• Decode hidden messages
• Analyze obfuscated data
• Reverse engineering challenges