Bitwise Operators
Binary Representation of Numbers
Python, like most programming languages, handles numbers internally using binary representation. This means that numbers are stored as sequences of 0s and 1s. Understanding this is crucial for efficient programming and debugging, especially when dealing with bitwise operations or low-level programming.
Key concepts:
- Bits: The individual 0s and 1s.
- Bytes: Groups of 8 bits.
- Integers: Stored directly in binary. The number of bits used depends on the system (typically 32 or 64 bits). Larger integers might require more than one word of memory.
Example:
The decimal number 10 is represented in binary as 1010. Python handles this conversion automatically.
decimal_number = 10
binary_representation = bin(decimal_number) #Built-in function
print(f"The binary representation of {decimal_number} is {binary_representation}") # Output: 0b1010 (0b prefix indicates binary)
To convert a binary string back to decimal:
binary_string = "1010"
decimal_number = int(binary_string, 2) # The 2 indicates base 2 (binary)
print(f"The decimal representation of {binary_string} is {decimal_number}") # Output: 10
Bitwise Operators These operators manipulate the individual bits of numbers. This will be covered in a separate note.
Data Types and Memory Management How Python handles different data types and allocates memory is related to the underlying binary representation. This will require a separate note.
Number Systems A broader overview of number systems (decimal, binary, hexadecimal, octal) would be useful context.