HEX2BIN

What it does

HEX2BIN(number, [places])

HEX2BIN(number, [places]) converts hexadecimal to binary. The result is text, with optional leading zeros controlled by places.

Try it

=HEX2BIN("2D",8) returns "00101101". All of these represent the same integer: decimal 45, binary 101101, octal 55, and hexadecimal 2D.

For a negative value, =HEX2BIN("FFFFFFFFD3",4) returns "1111010011". Decode 1099511627731-2^40=-45, then encode 1024-45=979 in ten binary digits. A positive source such as "200" is 512, outside the signed binary range, and gives #NUM!.

Quirks

These engineering conversions use signed fixed-width encodings, not arbitrary-length integers. The source accepts at most ten digits; a full ten-digit encoding uses 40-bit two’s complement. FFFFFFFFFF represents minus one. Invalid source digits or an oversized input give #NUM!. 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. Uppercase the source, validate its digit set and length, and accumulate raw=raw*16+digit with checked integer arithmetic. Only a full ten-digit source with its top bit set is negative: subtract 2^40 to obtain signed 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

7 hex2bin "HEX2BIN" (1, 2) [V "number", V "places"] |s, a, sv| { between(s, a, radix::hex2bin_kernel) }

pub fn hex2bin_kernel(number: &str, places: Option<f64>) -> Result<ExcelText, WorksheetErrorCode> {
    source_to_target_kernel(number, places, HEX_SPEC, 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

BIN2HEX 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.