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In C program I'm doing below stuff

int x  = 4;

Let us assume integer has 2 bytes in this case. So my question here is the variable x will hold two bytes that mean 16 bits. So here how the value 4 will be stored in 16 bits ?

Till now my understanding is the value 4 will be converted to Hex so it results [0x0004] and this hex value is stored in the 16 bit boxes ?

I dont know whether my understanding is correct but I need how the value of the x is mapped to 16 bit boxes ? It would be good if anyone provide structural/graphical representation about storing values in memory.

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    Possible duplicate of How Do Computers Work? Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 10:40
  • I just wanna know how the values are occupying the allocated memory rather than brief answers. Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 3:28

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If you've got a 16bit OS then there'll be 2 bytes next to each other in memory. One with 00000100 in and the other with 00000000. Whether it's stored as 00000000-00000100 or 00000100-00000000 depends on whether your OS is little-endian or big-endian. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

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    you've only got 8 bits (one byte) in 00000100 Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 21:30
  • Yes I agree @timB33 but I need how it is storing the numbers in the 16 boxes.Exactly I need graphical representation Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 3:32
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The exact representation is unspecified in the C standard, (which is partly why int might be 16, 32 or 64 bits)

A typical representation is 2's complement, because it allows the same hardware to do both signed and unsigned arithmetic.

Decimal 4 is binary 0000000000000100. There is no "conversion", all values are bit strings.

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