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Most and least significant bits

Understand the most significant bit, least significant bit, bit order, parity, and signed integer representations.

Positional significance

In an unsigned binary integer, the rightmost bit is the least significant bit (LSB) and represents 2⁰. Each position to the left has twice the value. The leftmost set bit is therefore the most significant bit (MSB).

The LSB also reveals parity: an integer ending in 0 is even, while one ending in 1 is odd.

Signed values and byte order

In a fixed-width two’s-complement signed integer, the highest-position bit participates in representing the sign. Its meaning depends on the chosen width, so the same visible bit pattern can represent different values under different interpretations.

MSB-first and LSB-first can also describe transmission order. Endianness is related but usually describes the order of bytes in a multi-byte value. State whether you mean bit order or byte order to avoid ambiguity.

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