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This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the HEX2OCT function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

Converts a hexadecimal number to octal.

Syntax

HEX2OCT(number, [places])

The HEX2OCT function syntax has the following arguments:

  • Number    Required. The hexadecimal number you want to convert. Number cannot contain more than 10 characters. The most significant bit of number is the sign bit. The remaining 39 bits are magnitude bits. Negative numbers are represented using two's-complement notation.

  • Places    Optional. The number of characters to use. If places is omitted, HEX2OCT uses the minimum number of characters necessary. Places is useful for padding the return value with leading 0s (zeros).

Remarks

  • If number is negative, HEX2OCT ignores places and returns a 10-character octal number.

  • If number is negative, it cannot be less than FFE0000000, and if number is positive, it cannot be greater than 1FFFFFFF.

  • If number is not a valid hexadecimal number, HEX2OCT returns the #NUM! error value.

  • If HEX2OCT requires more than places characters, it returns the #NUM! error value.

  • If places is not an integer, it is truncated.

  • If places is nonnumeric, HEX2OCT returns the #VALUE! error value.

  • If places is negative, HEX2OCT returns the #NUM! error value.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Formula

Description

Result

=HEX2OCT("F", 3)

Converts hexadecimal F to octal with 3 characters (the leading 0 is "padding").

017

=HEX2OCT("3B4E")

Converts hexadecimal 3B4E to octal

35516

=HEX2OCT("FFFFFFFF00")

Converts hexadecimal FFFFFFFF00 to octal

7777777400

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