Group size for octal conversion – UGC NET Question

Octal is a base-8 system, and 8 equals 2^3. This means three binary bits can represent exactly one octal digit. To convert binary to octal, we therefore group binary digits in sets of three from the right, converting each group to its octal equivalent.

Option A:
Option A, grouping by 2, gives only 4 different combinations per group, which is insufficient for representing all 8 octal digits. It would not align neatly with base 8.

Option B:
Option B is correct because grouping into threes uses the relationship 8 = 2^3. Each group of three bits corresponds directly to a single octal digit.

Option C:
Option C, grouping by 4, is appropriate for hexadecimal conversion since 16 = 2^4, not for octal. Using four-bit groups for octal would lead to ambiguous mapping.

Option D:
Option D, grouping by 8, would create groups representing 256 different values, which is unnecessarily large for mapping to only 8 octal symbols.