About

Converting text to binary is the fundamental process of translating human-readable language into the machine-readable language of zeros and ones. In computer science, this is not merely a substitution cipher; it is the physical representation of voltage states in memory. Every letter you type is mapped to a numeric code point (typically ASCII or Unicode), which is then converted into a sequence of bits.

Accuracy in this conversion is critical for network engineers debugging packet payloads, developers working with low-level data streams, or students grasping the concept of base-2 mathematics. A single bit flip can corrupt an entire message or crash an application. This tool handles the complexity of character encoding - including UTF-8 and extended ASCII - ensuring that characters like ñ or emojis (😀) are translated correctly alongside standard alphanumeric text.

Formulas

The conversion relies on the positional notation of the binary system (Base-2). Each character corresponds to a decimal number n (ASCII code), which is decomposed into powers of 2:

n = 7∑i=0 b_i × 2ⁱ

Where b_i is either 0 or 1. For example, the letter A (decimal 65) is calculated as:

65 = 64 + 1 = (1×2⁶) + (0×2⁵) + ... + (1×2⁰)

Resulting in the binary byte 01000001.

Reference Data

Character	Decimal	Binary (8-bit)	Hex	Description
NUL	0	00000000	00	Null Character
A	65	01000001	41	Uppercase A
B	66	01000010	42	Uppercase B
C	67	01000011	43	Uppercase C
a	97	01100001	61	Lowercase a
b	98	01100010	62	Lowercase b
c	99	01100011	63	Lowercase c
$	36	00100100	24	Dollar Sign
&at;	64	01000000	40	At Symbol
0	48	00110000	30	Digit Zero
1	49	00110001	31	Digit One
SPACE	32	00100000	20	Space

Frequently Asked Questions

This usually depends on the encoding scheme. Standard ASCII uses 7 bits (often padded to 8). Extended ASCII uses 8 bits. However, UTF-8 (used for emojis and international characters) is variable-width, meaning a single character can generate between 1 and 4 bytes (8 to 32 bits).

Binary strictly uses 0 and 1. If you enter a "2" or a letter into the binary field, this tool's validation logic will immediately highlight the error field in red and pause conversion to prevent corrupt output.

Yes. Emojis are part of the Unicode standard. This tool converts them using their UTF-16 decimal representation. For example, a smiley face typically converts to a 16-bit or 32-bit binary sequence depending on encoding settings.

Absolutely. A space is not "nothing" in computer terms; it is a character with the decimal value 32. In 8-bit binary, a space is represented as 00100000.