Base36 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-36 (aka Hexatrigesimal) representation. The choice of 36 is convenient in that the digits can be represented using the Arabic numerals 0–9 and the Latin letters A–Z (the ISO basic Latin alphabet).
| hexatrigesimal (base 36) | ternary (base 3) | hexatrigesimal (base 36) | ternary (base 3) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | = 1 | b | = 102 |
| 2 | = 2 | c | = 110 |
| 3 | = 10 | d | = 111 |
| 4 | = 11 | e | = 112 |
| 5 | = 12 | f | = 120 |
| 6 | = 20 | g | = 121 |
| 7 | = 21 | h | = 122 |
| 8 | = 22 | i | = 200 |
| 9 | = 100 | j | = 201 |
| a | = 101 | k | = 202 |
The ternary numeral system (also called base-3) has three as its base. Analogous to a bit, a ternary digit is a trit (trinary digit). One trit is equivalent to log23 (about 1.58496) bits of information.
| ternary (base 3) | hexatrigesimal (base 36) | ternary (base 3) | hexatrigesimal (base 36) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ≈ 1 | 102 | ≈ b |
| 2 | ≈ 2 | 110 | ≈ c |
| 10 | ≈ 3 | 111 | ≈ d |
| 11 | ≈ 4 | 112 | ≈ e |
| 12 | ≈ 5 | 120 | ≈ f |
| 20 | ≈ 6 | 121 | ≈ g |
| 21 | ≈ 7 | 122 | ≈ h |
| 22 | ≈ 8 | 200 | ≈ i |
| 100 | ≈ 9 | 201 | ≈ j |
| 101 | ≈ a | 202 | ≈ k |
| hexatrigesimal (base 36) | ternary (base 3) |
|---|---|
| 1 | = 1 |
| 2 | = 2 |
| 3 | = 10 |
| 4 | = 11 |
| 5 | = 12 |
| 6 | = 20 |
| 7 | = 21 |
| 8 | = 22 |
| 9 | = 100 |
| a | = 101 |