If Chinese characters are ever used like numbers like in English

Question

In English, especially in the software/programming world, you use letters as numbers a lot such as with hex encoding, using the alphabet 0123456789abcdef for 16 numbers, so you might write a number as af. Other times we might do a bulleted list and go:

a) something...
b) another thing...
c) ...

I'm wondering if there is anything like that in Chinese, for example, like a list like:

顧) ...
書) ...
媽) ...
找) ...
...

Or a hexidecimal-like system, numbering 123...顧書...

If so, wondering what are some examples of it so I can see what it looks like.

Answer 1

Here are some common choices

Use Arabic numerals

This is the most common way nowadays.

1) 第一点
2) 第二点
3) ……

Use numbers in Chinese

It's OK but why not use Arabic numerals?

一）第一点
二）第二点
三）……

And their 大写数字 form

壹）第一点
贰）第二点
叁）……

Use 天干 and 地支

They are quite rarely used today.

• 天干：甲(jiǎ)、乙(yǐ)、丙(bǐng)、丁(dīng)、戊(wù)、己(jǐ)、庚(gēng)、辛(xīn)、壬(rén)、癸(guǐ)
• 地支：子(zǐ)、丑(chǒu)、寅(yín)、卯(mǎo)、辰(chén)、巳(sì)、午(wǔ)、未(wèi)、申(shēn)、酉(yǒu)、戌(xū)、亥(hài)

Use them like this:

甲）第一点
乙）第二点
丙）……

and

子）第一点
丑）第二点
寅）第三点

Use Latin Letters

Use a ~ z would be acceptable some how. I would say they would appear more common than 天干/地支 system.

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When try to write hex numbers, you should use 0-9A-F as they are in English. At least I don't know any other way to write it in Chinese.