Question

A news website uses 32-bit integers to count the number of times an article has been viewed. The website is becoming more popular, and expects some of the articles to exceed the number of views that can be represented with 32 bits. In anticipation of this, the website is planning to change to 64-bit integers for the view counter. Which best describes the result of using 64-bit integers instead of 32-bit integers?

Answer 1

Answer:

2^32 times as many values can be represented

Explanation:

32-bit. This means that the number is represented by 32 separate one’s and zero’s. 32 bits of 2 possible states = 2^32=4,294,967,296 possible values.

Integer meaning that only whole multiples of one are accepted.

Signed meaning that negative values are accepted. This halves the number of possible positive values (roughly), so the largest number you can represent is 2^31–1=2,147,483,647, but instead of 0, the smallest number you can represent is -2,147,483,648. An unsigned 32-bit integer, by contrast, can represent anything from 0 to 4,294,967,295.