Base 16 numerical system "Sexadecimal" redirects here. For base 60, see Sexagesimal "Hex digit" redirects here. For binary coded hexadecimals, see Nibble "Hex format" redirects here. For hexadecimal file formats, see Hex file (disambiguation) In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base 16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexadecimal uses 16 distinct symbols, most often the symbols "0"–"9" to represent values 0 to 9, and "A"–"F" (or alternatively "a"–"f") to represent values from 10 to 15. Software developers and system designers widely use hexadecimal numbers because they provide a human-friendly representation of binary-coded values. Each hexadecimal digit represents four bits (binary digits), also known as a nibble (or nybble). For example, an 8-bit byte can have values ranging from 00000000 to 11111111 in binary form, which can be conveniently represented as 00 to FF in hexadecimal. In mathematics, a subscript is typically used to specify the base. For example, the decimal value 51,608 would be expressed in hexadecimal as C998 16 . In programming, a number of notations are used to denote hexadecimal numbers, usually involving a prefix. The prefix 0x is used in C, which would denote this value as 0xC998 . Hexadecimal is used in the transfer encoding Base16, in which each byte of the plaintext is broken into two 4-bit values and represented by two hexadecimal digits. Representation [ edit ] Written representation [ edit ] In most current use cases, the letters A–F or a–f represent the values 10–15, while the numerals 0–9 are used to represent their decimal values. There is no universal convention to use lowercase or uppercase, so each is prevalent or preferred in particular environments by community standards or convention; even mixed case is used. Seven-segment displays use mixed-case AbCdEF to…