title: What is the benefit of using HEXADECIMAL over DECIMAL
body: <p>I saw may programmers using HEXADECIMAL number to describe value and I was wonder what is the BENEFIT of using HEXADECIMAL instead of regular decimal number.</p>
  
  <p>For example :</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
  fread( $myFile, 0x594 );
  //vs
  fread( $myFile, "1428" );
  
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And more importantly,</p>
  
  <p>How do I get to that hexadecimal value ?</p>
  
  <p>I was trying <code>echo hexdec (1428);</code> and I'm receiving <code>5160</code> and not <code>0x594</code>.</p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong here ?</p>