binäärikoodausjärjestelmiä

Binary encoding is a method of representing characters, numbers, or other data using a sequence of binary digits, also known as bits. Each bit can have one of two values, typically represented as 0 or 1. This system forms the fundamental language of digital computers.

In binary encoding, specific patterns of bits are assigned to represent different symbols or values. For example, in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), the letter 'A' is represented by the binary sequence 01000001. Numerical values are also encoded in binary. The decimal number 5, for instance, is represented as 101 in binary.

Different encoding schemes exist for various purposes. While ASCII is common for text, other encodings like Unicode are used to represent a much wider range of characters from different languages and symbols. For numerical data, integers, floating-point numbers, and other types are encoded using specific binary formats that define the number of bits used and how the value is interpreted. The process of converting data into binary is called encoding, and converting it back is called decoding. This fundamental principle underpins all digital information processing and storage.