Bitstring

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A bitstring is a sequence of bits. Anything on a discrete computer can be represented by a bitstring. In particular, any discrete computer can be encoded in a bitstring, usually called a software program. Many mathematical structures can also be represented by bitstrings.

While every conceivable type of data in today's memory devices is indeed stored as a sequence of ONs and OFFs or zeros and ones is indeed a string of bits, (ex. '7'₁₀ == '0111'₂) bitstrings in the strict sense are used when grouping and packing boolean flags in a memory-efficient way. The state of one flag can be set or read using a bit mask.

[edit] See also

• Binary numeral system
• Bitstream