Representing different data types in binary

• As mentioned here, same bit pattern can represent different things depending on the context, like the program reading the bit pattern, etc.

Representing integers

• A typical program may either be dealing with unsigned integers or signed integers.
• The following image shows the representation of various values for different word sizes, $w$:

Same bit pattern encode different data - context matters

• The following table gives the two’s complement representation of $12,345$ and $-12,345$, and the unsigned representation of $53,191$. Notice that the bit pattern of $-12,345$ and $53,191$ are identical.

• The same bit pattern can be read as an unsigned integer as well as a two’s complement integer. This happens when we perform type casting between the two data types. Read more about these conversions here

Sources

• Computer Systems - A Programmer’s Perspective

Related Notes

• Same data bits can mean different things in different context