Hexavigesimal

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A Hexavigesimal numeral system has a base of twenty-six.

Base 26 is a fairly natural way of representing numbers as text using the 26-letter Latin alphabet. The number of interest is expressed in base 26, and then the 26 different base-26 digits are identified with letters as 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, ... 25=Z. Some examples: 26 = BA, 678 = BAC.

This system is of limited practical value, although letters used in nominal or serial numbers can be thought as hexavigesimal numerals for calculation purposes if the entire alphabet is used.

A Hexavigesimal numeral system has a base of twenty-six.

[edit] Fractions

The fact that 26 is a composite number and lies between two composite numbers (25 and 27) leads to many simple fractions.

B/C = A.N
B/D = A.IRIRIRIR...
B/E = A.GN
B/F = A.FFFFFFF...

The fractions B/G, B/I, B/J, B/K, B/M, B/N, B/P, B/Q are also simple.


[edit] Example Encoding Algorithm

This Java implementation shows how to convert base10 to base26. For the sake of simplicity StringBuffer or StringBuilder wasn't used. 97 is a magic number which refers to the ASCII code of the letter 'a' . Note that you can actually replace the 97 with 'a' in Java. However, it's not that easy with every language, hence the magic number, which should make porting a bit easier.

public static String toBase26(int i){
  String s="";
  while(i>25){
    int r=i%26;
    i=i/26;
    s=(char)(r+97)+s;
  }
  s=(char)(i+97)+s;
  return s;
}
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