Base conversion lets you convert the same number between its different number representation systems. Base conversions are used all in many different ways in computer science.
It's important to understand that you can represent the same number in multiple ways. Consider the two number systems, decimal and binary. In decimal, the number 5 is represented by 5
In binary, the number 5 is represented by 101
The decimal number system is used because it's how humans broadly know how to interact with numbers.
The binary number system is the number system used for all computing systems to store/access/manipulate information.
We need to know how to convert between number systems because real world systems have different constraints.
Example: a user inputs a number on a form in the **decimal **system, our computer then converts that number into the binary number system so we can store it on our computer.
Base2- Binary - Used extensively by computers to store, access and manipulate data directed to and from a CPU
Base10 - Decimal - The standard human readable number system
Base16 - Hexadecimal. Used extensively in assembly programming and referencing memory addresses
Base32 - a case insensitive way to encode strings like in DNS names
Base64 - A case sensitive way to represent a significant amount of numbers in shorter string
There is a simple formula for calculating how many numbers can be represented by a set of digits in a given number system.
{Numbers that can be represented} = {base}^{number of digits}