BIN2DEC function

BIN2DEC function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the BIN2DEC function in Microsoft Excel.



Description Converts a binary number to decimal.



Syntax BIN2DEC(number)



The BIN2DEC function syntax has the following arguments:

• Number Required. The binary number you want to convert. Number cannot contain more than 10 characters (10 bits). The most significant bit of number is the sign bit. The remaining 9 bits are magnitude bits. Negative numbers are represented using two's-complement notation.

*Two's complement notation

• One's complement notation is derived by inverting the 1's and 0's in the Binary number.
• Two's complement of a Binary number is 1's complement of the number + 1

Let's consider a decimal number 39.

The binary 10-bit notation is 0000100111

For -39 the 1st bit is changed to 1 : 1000100111

The rest of the number is in 2's complement notation of the remaining bits 000100111

The 1's complement is 111011000. (invert the 1's and 0's)

2's complement is

111011000+

000000001=

111011001

The complete binary representation of -39 is 1111011001

In excel BIN2DEC(1111011001) will give you the result as -39.





Remark If number is not a valid binary number, or if number contains more than 10 characters (10 bits), BIN2DEC 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.