What is the difference between Signed and Unsigned?

Signed integers are numbers with either a minus or plus sign in front to show a number can be either negative or positive. Whereas unsigned integers are assumed to be positive. These numbers (signed or unsigned) are important when doing computation because the numbers are fixed number of binary digits. A signed integer one bit means 0 for positive and -1 for negative.

An example is a 32 bit signed integer contains only 31 bits for data while a 32 bit unsigned has all 32 bits available. An unsigned integer will never be a negative number as having no sign will only mean it will always be positive. An unsigned integer will also have a higher range of positive values compared to a signed integer that can be either negative or positive.

There are some people who are not sure about the signed and unsigned data. These are known to be integers. Signed integers will allow you to represent the numbers in the positive and negative ranges. The unsigned integers are also known to represent the numbers from 0 to 255.

An unsigned integer will not have the ability to represent negative numbers properly. If in case the signed integer will meet the 32 bit signed integer, there will be some red flags that will let you know if there are some things that you may need to change. Zero can be signed or unsigned depending on what can be used.