Base 62

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Numeral systems by culture
Hindu-Arabic numerals
Indian
Eastern Arabic
Khmer
Indian family
Brahmi
Thai
East Asian numerals
Chinese
Counting rods
Japanese
Korean 
Alphabetic numerals
Abjad
Armenian
Cyrillic
Ge'ez
Hebrew
Greek (Ionian)
Āryabhaṭa
 
Other systems
Attic
Babylonian
Egyptian
Etruscan
Mayan
Roman
Urnfield
List of numeral system topics
Positional systems by base
Decimal (10)
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
1, 3, 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, 36, 60, more…
v  d  e

Base 62 is a positional notation using a base of 62. The twenty-six uppercase letters A-Z, twenty-six lowercase letters a-z and ten digits 0-9 can be used to provide the 62 separate symbols needed.

[edit] Advantages

When a large number is going to be logged using ASCII characters, Base 62 allows for very large numbers to be described in significantly fewer characters. A prime example of this is UNIX time stamps.

Base 62 numbers can also be included in a URL without encoding any characters.

[edit] Base 62 alphabet

It uses an alphabet of 09, followed by AZ, followed by az (thus "A" actually has a numerical value of 10).


The Base 62 alphabet
Value Symbol Value Symbol Value Symbol Value Symbol Value Symbol Value Symbol Value Symbol
0 0 9 9 18 I 27 R 36 a 45 j 54 s
1 1 10 A 19 J 28 S 37 b 46 k 55 t
2 2 11 B 20 K 29 T 38 c 47 l 56 u
3 3 12 C 21 L 30 U 39 d 48 m 57 v
4 4 13 D 22 M 31 V 40 e 49 n 58 w
5 5 14 E 23 N 32 W 41 f 50 o 59 x
6 6 15 F 24 O 33 X 42 g 51 p 60 y
7 7 16 G 25 P 34 Y 43 h 52 q 61 z
8 8 17 H 26 Q 35 Z 44 i 53 r