2.8 Signed and Unsigned Numbers
Thus far, we've treated binary numbers as unsigned values. The binary number ...00000 represents 0, ...00001 represents 1, ...00010 represents 2, and so on toward infinity. What about negative numbers? Signed values have been tossed around in previous sections, and we've mentioned the two's complement numbering system, but we haven't discussed how to represent negative numbers using the binary numbering system. Now it is time to describe the two's complement numbering system.
To represent signed numbers using the binary numbering system, we have to place a restriction on our numbers: They must have a finite and fixed number of bits. For our purposes, we're going to severely limit the number of bits to 8, 16, 32, ...
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