How to use the BIN2HEX function

What is the BIN2HEX function?

The BIN2HEX function converts a binary number to a hexadecimal number.

1. Introduction

What is the binary system?

The binary system is a positional numeral system that uses only two digits: 0 and 1. The binary system is important in our society, many devices like computers, digital cameras, mobile phones and modern cars use binary code to store, process and communicate data. The binary numeral system makes it easy to store and transmit data using binary digits or bits.

What is a bit?

A bit is a binary digit. It is the most basic unit of information in binary communication and computing. The bit can either be the value 0 (zero) or 1, a bit can also be part of a larger sequence of bits that can represent numbers, characters, and other types of data.

The following table shows the binary, decimal and hexadecimal values from 0 (zero) to 17.

Binary	Decimal	Hexadecimal
00000000	0	0
00000001	1	1
00000010	2	2
00000011	3	3
00000100	4	4
00000101	5	5
00000110	6	6
00000111	7	7
00001000	8	8
00001001	9	9
00001010	10	A
00001011	11	B
00001100	12	C
00001101	13	D
00001110	14	E
00001111	15	F
00010000	16	10
00010001	17	11

What is a hexadecimal number?

A hexadecimal number is a number with a base of 16, for example, the decimal system uses a base of 10. This means that each digit in a hexadecimal number can have 16 possible values, from 0 to 15, however, the letters A to F are used from 10 to 15. See the hexadecimal column in the table above.

Hexadecimal numbers are often used in computers, the reason is they represent four binary digits (bits) with one hexadecimal digit. For example, the binary number 1010 is equivalent to the hexadecimal number A.

Hexadecimals make it easier to write big numbers with less digits, in other words, hexadecimals shorten binary digits considerably. For example, we can use hexadecimal to show the values of colors and MAC addresses in computers.

What are the different conversion functions related to BIN2HEX in Excel?

Excel Function	Description
BIN2DEC	Converts a binary number (base-2) to decimal (base-10)
BIN2OCT	Converts a binary number to octal (base-8)
BIN2HEX	Converts a binary number to hexadecimal (base-16)
OCT2DEC	Converts an octal number to decimal
OCT2HEX	Converts an octal number to hexadecimal
OCT2BIN	Converts an octal number to binary
DEC2BIN	Converts a decimal number to binary
DEC2OCT	Converts a decimal number to octal
DEC2HEX	Converts a decimal number to hexadecimal
HEX2DEC	Converts a hexadecimal number to decimal
HEX2OCT	Converts a hexadecimal number to octal
HEX2BIN	Converts a hexadecimal number to binary

2. Syntax

BIN2HEX(number,[places])

number	Required. The binary number you want to convert to hexadecimal. The sign bit is the most significant bit of number, the following 9 bits are magnitude bits. Negative numbers are represented using two's-complement notation.
[places]	Optional. The number of characters to use. If not entered the minimum number of characters is used. Use this argument to add leading 0 (zeros).

What is a sign bit?

The sign bit indicates whether a binary number is positive or negative, if the bit is 0 the number is positive, if the bit is 1, the number is negative.

What is a magnitude bit?

The remaining 9 bits are magnitude bits which represents the absolute value of the number. An absolute number is a number without the sign.

What is two's-complement notation?

Two’s-complement notation is used to represent negative numbers, the magnitude bits are changed from 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 and adding 1 to the result. For example:

Decimal number +9 using 10 bits is 0000001001.
Decimal number -9 using 10 bits is 1111110110 + 1 = 1111110111

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3. Example

The image above demonstrates the BIN2HEX function in cells C3, C4, C5, and C6. It calculates the hexadecimal values based on the corresponding cells which contain different binary numbers.

Formula in cell B3:

The first cell B3 contains 0000011001 and the BIN2HEX function returns 19 in cell C3, the second cell B4 contains 0000000011 and the BIN2HEX function returns 3.

The third cell B5 contains 0000000100 and the BIN2HEX function returns 4 in cell C3, the fifth cell B6 contains 0011111111 and the BIN2HEX function returns FF.

The next section describes how these values are calculated in detail.

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4. How is the BIN2HEX function calculated in detail?

Binary	Hexadecimal
0000	0
0001	1
0010	2
0011	3
0100	4
0101	5
0110	6
0111	7
1000	8
1001	9
1010	A
1011	B
1100	C
1101	D
1110	E
1111	F

1. Split the binary number into groups of four digits starting from the right.
2. If the last group has less than four digits, add zeros to the left to make it four digits.
3. Use the table above to find the corresponding hexadecimal digit for each group of four digits.

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5. Function not working

BIN2HEX returns the #NUM! error value if

• more than 10 binary digits are used. See cells B3 and C3 in the image above.
• the number is not a valid binary number. See cells B4 and C4 in the image above.
• [places] is negative. See the formula next to cell C5.
• it requires more than the specified places characters. See the formula next to cell C6.

BIN2HEX returns the #VALUE! error value if places is not a number. See the formula next to cell C7.

The second argument [places]is truncated if it is not an integer. For example, [places] is 4.5 and the BIN2HEX function truncates it to 4. See the formula next to cell C8.

BIN2HEX ignores places and returns a 10-character hexadecimal number if the binary number is negative.

5.1 Troubleshooting the error value

When you encounter an error value in a cell a warning symbol appears, displayed in the image above. Press with mouse on it to see a pop-up menu that lets you get more information about the error.

1. The first line describes the error if you press with left mouse button on it.
2. The second line opens a pane that explains the error in greater detail.
3. The third line takes you to the "Evaluate Formula" tool, a dialog box appears allowing you to examine the formula in greater detail.
4. This line lets you ignore the error value meaning the warning icon disappears, however, the error is still in the cell.
5. The fifth line lets you edit the formula in the Formula bar.
6. The sixth line opens the Excel settings so you can adjust the Error Checking Options.

Here are a few of the most common Excel errors you may encounter.

#NULL error - This error occurs most often if you by mistake use a space character in a formula where it shouldn't be. Excel interprets a space character as an intersection operator. If the ranges don't intersect an #NULL error is returned. The #NULL! error occurs when a formula attempts to calculate the intersection of two ranges that do not actually intersect. This can happen when the wrong range operator is used in the formula, or when the intersection operator (represented by a space character) is used between two ranges that do not overlap. To fix this error double check that the ranges referenced in the formula that use the intersection operator actually have cells in common.

#SPILL error - The #SPILL! error occurs only in version Excel 365 and is caused by a dynamic array being to large, meaning there are cells below and/or to the right that are not empty. This prevents the dynamic array formula expanding into new empty cells.

#DIV/0 error - This error happens if you try to divide a number by 0 (zero) or a value that equates to zero which is not possible mathematically.

#VALUE error - The #VALUE error occurs when a formula has a value that is of the wrong data type. Such as text where a number is expected or when dates are evaluated as text.

#REF error - The #REF error happens when a cell reference is invalid. This can happen if a cell is deleted that is referenced by a formula.

#NAME error - The #NAME error happens if you misspelled a function or a named range.

#NUM error - The #NUM error shows up when you try to use invalid numeric values in formulas, like square root of a negative number.

#N/A error - The #N/A error happens when a value is not available for a formula or found in a given cell range, for example in the VLOOKUP or MATCH functions.

#GETTING_DATA error - The #GETTING_DATA error shows while external sources are loading, this can indicate a delay in fetching the data or that the external source is unavailable right now.

5.2 The formula returns an unwanted value

To understand why a formula returns an unexpected value we need to examine the calculations steps in detail. Luckily, Excel has a tool that Here is how to troubleshoot a formula:

1. Select the cell containing the formula you want to examine in detail.
2. Go to tab “Formulas” on the ribbon.
3. Press with left mouse button on "Evaluate Formula" button. A dialog box appears.
   The formula appears in a white field inside the dialog box. Underlined expressions are calculations being processed in the next step. The italicized expression is the most recent result. The buttons at the bottom of the dialog box allows you to evaluate the formula in smaller calculations which you control.
4. Press with left mouse button on the "Evaluate" button located at the bottom of the dialog box to process the underlined expression.
5. Repeat pressing the "Evaluate" button until you have seen all calculations step by step. This allows you to examine the formula in greater detail and hopefully find the culprit.
6. Press "Close" button to dismiss the dialog box.

There is also another way to debug formulas using the function key F9. F9 is especially useful if you have a hunch that a specific part of the formula is the issue, this makes it faster than the "Evaluate Formula" tool since you don't need to go through all calculations to find the issue..

1. Enter Edit mode: Double-press with left mouse button on the cell or press F2 to enter Edit mode for the formula.
2. Select part of the formula: Highlight the specific part of the formula you want to evaluate. You can select and evaluate any part of the formula that could work as a standalone formula.
3. Press F9: This will calculate and display the result of just that selected portion.
4. Evaluate step-by-step: You can select and evaluate different parts of the formula to see intermediate results.
5. Check for errors: This allows you to pinpoint which part of a complex formula may be causing an error.

The image above shows cell reference B3 converted to hard-coded value using the F9 key. Comparing the arrays shows that the number of values does not match. The BIN2HEX function requires a binary number input value smaller than 11 digits. We have found what is wrong with the formula using the F9 key.

Tips!

• View actual values: Selecting a cell reference and pressing F9 will show the actual values in those cells.
• Exit safely: Press Esc to exit Edit mode without changing the formula. Don't press Enter, as that would replace the formula part with the calculated value.
• Full recalculation: Pressing F9 outside of Edit mode will recalculate all formulas in the workbook.

Remember to be careful not to accidentally overwrite parts of your formula when using F9. Always exit with Esc rather than Enter to preserve the original formula. However, if you make a mistake overwriting the formula it is not the end of the world. You can “undo” the action by pressing keyboard shortcut keys CTRL + z or pressing the “Undo” button

Other errors

Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel - Article

Floating-point errors are usually very small, often beyond the 15th decimal place, and in most cases don't affect calculations significantly.

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6. BIN2HEX user defined function alternative

The following VBA code describes a user defined function that converts binary to hexadecimal.

Function BinaryToHex(BinaryStr As String) As String
    Dim i As Long
    Dim DecimalNum As Long
    Dim Binary As String
    
    'Clean the input string - remove spaces and validate
    Binary = Replace(BinaryStr, " ", "")
    
    'Validate input contains only 1s and 0s
    For i = 1 To Len(Binary)
        If Mid(Binary, i, 1) <> "0" And Mid(Binary, i, 1) <> "1" Then
            BinaryToHex = "Invalid binary input"
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next i
    
    'Convert binary to decimal first
    For i = Len(Binary) To 1 Step -1
        If Mid(Binary, i, 1) = "1" Then
            DecimalNum = DecimalNum + 2 ^ (Len(Binary) - i)
        End If
    Next i
    
    'Convert decimal to hexadecimal
    BinaryToHex = Hex(DecimalNum)
End Function

Here's how to use this function:

1. Open the VBA Editor. Press short cut keys Alt + F11 to quickly open the VBA Editor in Excel.
2. Select your workbook in the explorer window.
   
3. Insert a new module to your workbook.
   
4. Paste the code displayed above into the code window.
   
5. Close the VBA Editor and go back to Excel.
6. Use the User defined function name in the formula bar.
   
7. Press Enter.

Note! Make sure to save you workbook as a macro-enabled workbook *.xlsm in order to keep the code attached to the workbook.

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Useful links

BIN2HEX function - Microsoft
Binary to Hex converter
How to Convert Binary to Hexadecimal?

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The BIN2HEX function function is one of 42 functions in the 'Engineering' category.

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