How to Convert Letters to Binary

All computers use binary to process and produce information. Binary is a numbering system consisting of only 1 and 0. These two numbers are used to code everything your computer does. You can learn to convert letter to binary to better understand how your computer works, or just for fun. Think of it as a secret code only known to you and your computer. Read on to learn more.

Instructions

1. Start by making a chart on a piece of paper. Write the numbers 65 through 90. Next to the numbers, write the capital letters of the alphabet, starting with 65. "A" goes next to 65, "B" next to 66, "C" next to 67 and so on through "Z."

2. Make another chart with the numbers 97 through 122 and do the same thing with lowercase letters. Next to 97 goes "A," next to 98 goes "B" and continue through "Z."

3. Convert the numbers corresponding to the letters to hexadecimals. A hexadecimal is a base 16, number system, used to convert numbers to binary. Go to the Ascii Table website, find the number corresponding to the letter you want to convert. The number or combination of numbers and letters in the "HX" column is the hexadecimal equivalent to your number.

4. Use another chart to convert the hexadecimal to binary. Put the numbers 0 through 9 followed by the letters A through F in one column. The letters have to be added because hexadecimal is base 16.

5. Place the binary equivalent to the hexadecimals in the other column. The number 0 is 0000 in binary, so place "0000" next to 0 on the chart. The number 1 is 0001, 2 is 0010, 3 is 0011, 4 is 0100, 5 is 0101, 6 is 0110, 7 is 0100, 8 is 1000, 9 is 1001. Continue the equivalency with the letters: A is 1010, B is 1011, C is 1100, D is 1101, E is 1110 and F is 1111.

6. Take your 2 hexadecimal characters and find their binary equivalent. Place the 2 sets of 4 numbers together. This is the binary representation of your letter. For example, A corresponds to 65 on your first chart and, using the Ascii table, 65 is 41 in hexadecimal. The number 4 is 0100 in binary and the number 1 is 0001 in binary so the letter A in binary is "01000001."

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Convert numbers to hexadecimals using the Ascii Table.