"Hexadecimal" *means* character. Hexadecimal is a means of representing binary values with the *characters* 0-9 and A-F. The data is not hexadecimal; hexadecimal is convenient *character-based* way of representing it.
And no, except for very short inputs, base64 is more compact than hex. Hex is always 2:1 relative to the input data; base64 is 4:3. 100 bytes in hex requires 200 bytes; 100 bytes in base64 requires 134. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Seymour J Metz Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 11:27 AM To: ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Shower thought No, a hexadecimal comparison of 11 to AA gives AA higher; 11 and AA are not the same as C'11' and C'AA' BASE64 is almost certainly guarantied to be less compact.
