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I thought about the importance of 0 in numeral systems, and base 26 doesn't have one, for example those numbers in base 10 are the same:

0342 342 000342 

In base26, any word would need to be expressed as follow, for example the word

duck 

would be equal to

aaaaaaduck 

because a is considered to be zero.

Am I right ?

I know the question is not really interesting when thinking about maths, but I just wanted to know where I could be wrong with this.

Also the use of 0 allows to make actual sentences if you use it as a separator.

EDIT: of course when I ask about base 26, it implies letters.

  • 3
    Hmm, my "base-26" digits go like `0123456789abcdefghijklmnop`...2011-09-30
  • 1
    Numerals are just symbols. You can declare them as `abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz` or you can declare them as `0123456789!@#$%^&*()_+[]{}`. Just be sure to give the definition you are using, so other people could follow as well.2011-09-30
  • 1
    Why stop at 27? Go on to ASCII. Or maybe to Unicode.2011-09-30
  • 2
    I don't get your "of course". As already said, it is convention to start using letters only after the traditional digits have been expended...2011-09-30
  • 1
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexavigesimal2011-09-30
  • 0
    @gokoon Your link is actually the best answer I've seen to this question.2011-12-28

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