HEX2BIN function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
What is HEX2BIN function in Excel?
HEX2BIN function is one of Engineering functions in Microsoft Excel that converts a hexadecimal number to binary.
Syntax of HEX2BIN function
HEX2BIN(number, [places])
The HEX2BIN function syntax has the following arguments:
- Number Required. The hexadecimal number you want to convert. Number cannot contain more than 10 characters. The most significant bit of number is the sign bit (40th bit from the right). The remaining 9 bits are magnitude bits. Negative numbers are represented using two’s-complement notation.
- Places Optional. The number of characters to use. If places is omitted, HEX2BIN uses the minimum number of characters necessary. Places is useful for padding the return value with leading 0s (zeros).
HEX2BIN formula explanation
- If number is negative, HEX2BIN ignores places and returns a 10-character binary number.
- If number is negative, it cannot be less than FFFFFFFE00, and if number is positive, it cannot be greater than 1FF.
- If number is not a valid hexadecimal number, HEX2BIN returns the #NUM! error value.
- If HEX2BIN requires more than places characters, it returns the #NUM! error value.
- If places is not an integer, it is truncated.
- If places is nonnumeric, HEX2BIN returns the #VALUE! error value.
- If places is negative, HEX2BIN returns the #NUM! error value.
Example of HEX2BIN function
Steps to follow:
1. Open a new Excel worksheet.
2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1
Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.
You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.
Formula | Description | Result |
=HEX2BIN(“F”, 8) | Converts hexadecimal F to binary, with 8 characters (4 zeros at beginning are “padding”). | 00001111 |
=HEX2BIN(“B7”) | Converts hexadecimal B7 to binary. | 10110111 |
=HEX2BIN(“FFFFFFFFFF”) | Converts hexadecimal FFFFFFFFFF to binary. | 1111111111 |