The Excel BIN2HEX Function

Basic Description
Hexadecimal (base 16), decimal (base 10), octal (base 8), and binary (base 2) are the most commonly used numeral systems in engineering and computing. Therefore, Excel has provided functions to convert numeric values to and from each of these systems.

The Excel Bin2Hex function converts a Binary (Base 2) number into a Hexadecimal (Base 16) number.

The format of the function is :

BIN2HEX( Number, [Places] )
Where :

- The Number argument is the binary number that is to be converted to hexadecimal
and - The [Places] argument is an optional argument, which specifies the number of characters that you want the returned hexadecimal number to have. If this is greater than the minimum, the hexadecimal number will be padded out using leading zeros.
If omitted, the returned hexadecimal uses the minimum number of places.

Note that the Number argument must be no more than 10 characters (40 bits) long. The most significant bit of this value denotes the sign of the number and the remaining 39 bits denote the magnitude. Negative numbers are represented using two's complement notation.





Common Errors
If you get an error from your Excel Bin2Hex function this is likely to be one of the following :

#VALUE! - Occurs if the supplied Places argument is not recognised as a number
#NUM! - Occurs if either: - the supplied Number argument is not recognised as a binary number or contains more than 10 characters
or
- the resulting hexadecimal number requires more places than is specified by the supplied Places argument
or
- the supplied Places argument ≤ 0

#NAME? - Occurs when Analysis ToolPak add-in is not enabled in your Excel.
You will need to enable the add-in if you want to use the Excel engineering functions.

To do this in Excel 2003 :

•From the Tools drop-down menu, select the option Add-Ins ...
•An 'Add-Ins' window will pop up. From this, select the option Analysis ToolPak and click OK
To do this in Excel 2007 :

•Click the Microsoft button on the top left of your spreadsheet and select the Excel Options button
•From the menu on the left hand side, select Add-Ins
•In the 'Manage:' box, select Excel Add-ins and click Go...
•An 'Add-Ins' window will pop up. From this, select the option Analysis ToolPak and click OK