A byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer, and for this reason, it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures. Bytes are used to represent characters such as letters, numbers, or typographic symbols, and each byte can hold a string of bits that need to be used in a larger unit for application purposes. A byte can represent the equivalent of a single character, such as the letter B, a comma, or a percentage sign, or it can represent a number from 0 to 255. The standard number of bits in a byte is eight, but that number can vary from system to system, depending on the hardware. Bytes are the smallest operable units of storage in computer technology, and they are used to store and process information in a computer.