digitwise

Digitwise refers to processing or analysis that operates on individual digits within numbers or digits within strings, rather than treating the value as a single whole. The term is informal and generic; its exact meaning depends on context. In arithmetic algorithms, digitwise methods process numbers digit by digit, such as long division or base conversions, with carries or borrows handled step by step.

In programming, digitwise transformations repeatedly extract digits using division and modulo operations to apply a rule to each digit. In encoding and data validation, digitwise techniques include masking, parity checks, and per-digit substitutions used in lightweight schemes. Digitwise comparison can analyze numbers by examining corresponding digits from most significant to least significant, often in fixed-length representations to establish an order.

Applications include error detection, input validation, and simple digit-based encodings; advantages are locality and intuitive implementation, while limitations include base-dependence and potential inefficiency compared with holistic or vectorized methods. The term is related to general per-digit processing, base-n arithmetic, and string manipulation, and remains a descriptive label rather than a formal standard.