0xAB

0xAB is a hexadecimal literal used in computing to represent the byte value 171 in decimal. The 0x prefix signals hexadecimal notation in many programming languages, such as C, C++, Java, and Python. In 8-bit contexts, 0xAB fits within a single byte and is commonly used in examples, masks, constants, or memory dumps. It may appear as part of larger numeric literals (for example 0xABCD) or as individual bytes in network protocols or color data when expressed byte-by-byte.

In character encoding, the byte 0xAB maps to the left-pointing double angle quotation mark, «, in ISO/IEC 8859-1 (Latin-1) and Windows-1252. In Unicode, the corresponding code point is U+00AB, named LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK, and it is used in several languages to denote guillemets around quoted text.

Usage of 0xAB is not tied to a single standard beyond its role as a hex value; its meaning depends on context, such as a memory byte, a mask in bitwise operations, or a code point in a character encoding scheme. Its role illustrates the broader practice of using hexadecimal notation to express compact byte-level data and characters in computing.

See also: Hexadecimal, Byte, Unicode code point U+00AB, ISO/IEC 8859-1, Windows-1252, bitmask, 0x notation.