Parity Check - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition parity-check

Definition :

The act or process of testing whether a byte or other data structure has an even or odd number of bits set to the value of 1 it is used primarily to detect errors in data especially in memory banks or in data transmitted over a communications line The parity can be changed by assigning one bit in each data structure as the parity bit so that the total number of bits set to the value of 1 is odd odd parity or even even parity If parity is used for error checking the writing and reading systems must first agree on which type of parity odd or even to use if the reading system detects a deviation from the agreed parity it signals an error to be handled by the error handling processes of the system