DEC2BIN

What it does

DEC2BIN(number, [places])

DEC2BIN(number, [places]) converts decimal to binary. The result is text, with optional leading zeros controlled by places.

Try it

=DEC2BIN(45,8) returns "00101101". All of these represent the same integer: decimal 45, binary 101101, octal 55, and hexadecimal 2D.

For a negative value, =DEC2BIN(-45,4) returns "1111010011". Encode 1024-45=979 in binary. The sign representation occupies ten digits even though places is four.

Quirks

These engineering conversions use signed fixed-width encodings, not arbitrary-length integers. The destination’s numeric range is -512 through 511. The decimal input is truncated toward zero. For a positive result a width too small gives #NUM!. A negative result uses ten digits; the current code still validates an explicitly supplied width before emitting it, despite documentation describing the width as ignored.

How to implement

Separate input parsing, signed interpretation and output formatting. Coerce the decimal number and truncate it toward zero to obtain integer v. Check v against the 10-bit signed target range. If negative, encode 2^10+v in base 2 using ten digits. Otherwise use repeated division by 2, reverse the remainders and left-pad to the requested width. Truncate the width and validate it in the current supported range one through ten. Return text; a decimal number formatted to look similar is a different value kind.

Rust code

4 dec2bin "DEC2BIN" (1, 2) [V "number", V "places"] |s, a, sv| { from_decimal(s, a, radix::dec2bin_kernel) }

pub fn dec2bin_kernel(number: f64, places: Option<f64>) -> Result<ExcelText, WorksheetErrorCode> {
    dec_to_target_kernel(number, places, BIN_SPEC)
}

No implementation has been published with a Handbook test suite for this function.

Version differences

The recorded environments below distinguish a reading from a same-input comparison. Counts describe captured inputs in each environment; overlapping captures and comparisons are not totals of unique worksheet calls.

The record contains no same-input comparison between these environments. Reading different inputs on different builds does not establish either a version change or cross-build agreement.

Recorded environments and comparison details.

Alternatives

BIN2DEC converts in the reverse direction. BASE and DECIMAL provide general radix conversion with different sign rules. A full-width negative engineering encoding is not a minus-prefixed numeral; choose the pair whose sign convention fits your input.

Named variants

No named variants are recorded yet.