Since computers use binary numbers, how is it possible for them to display decimals?

 

For instance, the following (C code) will print out 10, and not a binary representation of 10.

int i = 10;

printf(i);

 

How is that done?

The compiler knows that what you want to display is a human readable number so it converts the binary into that. If you were to look at the piece of memory that is i it would be:

 

00001010

 

Assuming that c uses just a single byte binary for integers, and not twos comp or something similar....

It's rather easy to write a code constructing a string from a natural number, e.g.:

std::string result="";
for (; value!= 0; value /= 10) {

 int last_digit = value - 10*(value/10);
 switch ( last_digit ) {
   case 0: result="0"+result; break;
   case 1: result="1"+result; break;
   ...
   case 9: result="9"+result; break;
   default:
     std::cout<<"You screwed up the digit "<<last_digit<<std::endl; abort();
} 
}
if (result == "") result="0";

Thanks for answering.

 

So the printf function (or similar in other languages) converts the binary representations into strings - sort of an optical illusion.

Slightly more abstract: It converts the number into a symbol (an ordered collection of digits) that can be displayed on the screen and understood by the reader - though not necessarily in the way I sketched. This is not exclusive to computers: Actually, when you write "10" on a piece of paper you are writing down a symbol for a number. Sidenote: The symbol "[math]\frac{100}{10}[/math]" would be a different symbol for the same number.

Outdated but worth noting

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-coded_decimal

 

there is more than one way......................