High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The ones` complement of a binary number is defined as the value obtained by inverting all the bits in the binary representation of the number (swapping 0`s for 1`s and vice-versa). The ones` complement of the number then behaves like the negative of the original number in most arithmetic operations. However, unlike two`s complement, these numbers could not have widespread use because of issues like negative zero, end-around borrow, etc.