Technology Fundamentals
Byte
Definition
A byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer.
Why It Matters
The byte is a fundamental unit of measurement for data storage. File sizes, memory capacity, and storage drive space are all measured in bytes and its multiples (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc.).
Contextual Example
A plain text file containing the word "hello" would be 5 bytes in size, as each character is typically represented by one byte in the ASCII encoding scheme.
Common Misunderstandings
- A byte can represent 256 different values (2 to the power of 8), from 0 to 255.
- Do not confuse bytes with bits. A 100 megabyte (MB) file is 800 megabits (Mb).