Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Converting to Hexadecimal.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 15, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
If you do any programming, you know how important hexadecimal numbers are. Hexadecimal numbers are used to represent values that can be easily understood by both humans and programming languages. In the hexadecimal numbering system, each digit can vary between 0 and F. Thus, 0 through 9 are the same as in our decimal numbering system, and A through F are converted to 10 through 15 in decimal.
How can Excel help with hexadecimal numbers? It includes a worksheet function that allows you to easily convert a number from decimal to hexadecimal. For instance, let's say you have a decimal value in E3. If you wanted to know the hexadecimal equivalent, you would use the following:
=DEC2HEX(E3)
If the value in E3 was 123, the result of the above formula would be 7B. The DEC2HEX worksheet function can be used to convert any decimal values between -549,755,813,888 and 549,755,813,887.
Once the conversion is done, the value in the cell is considered text. This means that you cannot use the results of DEC2HEX in a numeric formula.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2308) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Converting to Hexadecimal.
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2020-05-05 17:22:36
Erik Renberg
Hello Mr. Wyatt,
I've used many of your excel tips and tricks, a big thank you!
Can you explain why Excel returns the wrong value in the last calculation when I add following calculations to cells:
=HEX2DEC("2000")
=DEC2HEX(8192,4)
=LOG(32,16)
=2+LOG(32,16)
=16^(2+LOG(32,16))
=DEC2HEX(16^(2+LOG(32,16)),4)
The context is I'm taking different color-values of RGB for each base color separately, values ranging from 0 to 255, combining them for a 6-digit RGB hexcode.
Again, thanks for all your usefull tips!
Erik
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
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