Pronunciation for hexadecimals

Question

For a hexadecimal number, say 0x10, I always thought in my head, zero-x-one-zero.

Is there a 'most correct' pronunciation?

Answer 1

There isn't a standard for this, so here's what I do.

If the number is small enough that I know it offhand, I'll may pronounce it as its decimal equivalent: 0x0a is ten, 0x40 is 64, and so on. But casually, I read most hex numbers as decimal numbers separated by runs of letters:

• 0x3bda4: Oh X three B D A four
• 0x400f20: Oh X four hundred F twenty

For longer numbers, I may read the digits a byte at a time:

• 0x0f983d: Oh X oh F ninety-eight three D

And occasionally I'll just make something up:

• 0x20f6: Twenty efty six

But of course 4d and 40 are ambiguous in an American accent, and no one has any hope of telling the difference if you pronounce a0 the same as 80, so on the rare occasion that I'm reading hex numbers aloud, I'll just spell them out digit by digit:

• 0x3bda4: Oh X three B D A four
• 0x400f20: Oh X four oh oh F two oh
• …

The main thing is being understood, so any system that works is valid. If we're taking votes for neologisms (along the lines of kibibyte and friends) then I might (half-jokingly) propose:

• 0x10 = one tex = 16
• 0x20 = twentex = 32
• 0x30 = thirtex = 48
• 0x40 = fourtex = 64
• …
• 0x100 = one hundrex = 256
• 0x1000 = one thousax = 4096
• 0x10000 = tex thousax = 65536
• 0x100000 = one hundrex thousax = 1048576
• 0x1000000 = one milliox = 16777216
• …
• ¹⁄_0x10 = 0x0.1 = one texth = ¹⁄₁₆
• ¹⁄_0x100 = 0x0.01 = one hundrexth = ¹⁄₂₅₆
• …

0xa400f20.cd could be read A milliox, four hundrex thousax, F hundrex twentex and CD hundrexths. You could replace [ks] with [k] for ease of pronunciation, giving A milliok, four hundrek thousak, F hundrek twentek and CD hundrekths, or replace the first consonant with /x/ rather than the last, giving [z], as in A xillion, four xundred xousand, F xundred xwenty and CD xundredths. Of course, the latter system introduces ambiguity between million and billion, so you'd probably have to go with xmillion (/smillion/) and xbillion (/spillion/) instead. I do so like the idea of xillion being a specific number though.

Alternatively, prefix the whole number with hex and read it as though it were decimal: hex A million, four hundred thousand, F hundred twenty and CD hundredths.

Answer 2

I don't bother reading the 0x, but I say "... in hex" or "hex ..." to specify the base used if it's ambiguous (i.e., 0x9824 is ambiguous because it doesn't have any digits higher than 9).

I pronounce the letters using the NATO phonetic alphabet, so 0x4FA79D would be "four foxtrot alpha seven niner delta".

Answer 3

For any number which isn't decimal, it's easiest just to read out the digits and suffix with the base you are using, so 0x10 would be "one oh hex".

Using "ten hex" has the problem that if you start reading a number with normal decimal notation, people will assume you are reading out a decimal, whereas changing the form implies there is something different about the number even before you get to the end of the number and read out the base.

The only exception is if I'm dictating code. In this situation I would just read out the exact text, so 0x10 would be "oh ex one oh".