How Can C Be Used to Display the Binary Representation of Numbers?

How to Display Binary Representations of Numbers Using C

In an operating systems course, converting between binary, hexadecimal, and decimal representations of numbers is essential. One common method for representing signed numbers in memory is using two's complement.

Suppose you have the following code:

char a, b;

short c;
a = -58;
c = -315;

b = a >> 3;

To verify the binary representation of these values in memory after two's complement:

• a is a char (1 byte): 00111010
• b is a char (1 byte): 00001000
• c is a short (2 bytes): 11111110 11000101

Instead of performing manual calculations, C provides a convenient method to display binary representations: std::bitset.

#include <bitset>

...

char a = -58;
std::bitset<8> x(a);
std::cout << x << '\n';

short c = -315;
std::bitset<16> y(c);
std::cout << y << '\n';

This code creates bitsets for the values of a (with 8 bits) and c (with 16 bits). The cout operator is overloaded to stream the binary representation of the bitset. As a result, the binary representations will be printed to the console.

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