Hexazecimal

Hexazecimal is a term found in some hobbyist mathematics and puzzle discussions to describe a hypothetical base-26 positional numeral system. It is not a standard or universally accepted term, but rather a concept used to explore representations outside the familiar decimal and hexadecimal conventions. In this usage, hexazecimal designates a system with 26 distinct digit symbols.

Digits and notation in hexazecimal

The standard digit set is 0–9 followed by the letters A–P, representing values 0 through 25. Each place value corresponds to a power of 26, so a number with digits d_n d_{n-1} ... d_0 has the value sum d_i × 26^i. For example, the digit 'A' represents 10 and 'P' represents 25. A two-digit hexazecimal number can range from 0 to 25 in its least significant place and 0 to 25 in its next place, yielding a wide—but finite—range per length.

Example

Decimal 255 converts to 9L in hexazecimal, because 255 = 9×26 + 21, and 21 is represented by the letter L (A=10, B=11, ..., L=21). Thus 9L (base 26) equals 255 (base 10).

Relation to other systems and uses

Hexazecimal is mainly of theoretical or educational interest, offering a compact way to map to alphabetic codes and to study base-26 arithmetic. It is not implemented in standard computing hardware or programming languages, and discussions about it often clarify that it is a conceptual or puzzle-oriented system rather than an official numeral base. In some contexts, the term is used informally to distinguish base-16 hexadecimal from alternative, nonstandard bases.