Convert numbers between binary, decimal, hex, octal and any base 2–36, including fractions, repeating digits and two's-complement bits for negatives.
-42 in decimal is -2A in hex. A 16-bit register stores it as FFD6 in hex, which reads as 65494 if the same bits are treated as unsigned.
The minus sign is carried through unchanged.
Reading the remainders from last to first gives the digits.
Read as unsigned the bits are 65494; read as signed the top bit counts −2¹⁵, giving -42.
A number written in base b is a sum of digits times powers of b, so 2A in hex is 2 × 16 + 10 = 42. To write a whole number in base b, the converter divides by b repeatedly and reads the remainders from last to first; for a fraction it multiplies by b repeatedly and takes each whole part as the next digit. It works with exact fractions, so it can tell whether the digits after the point end or repeat.
Programmers use it for memory addresses, color codes, file permissions and bit masks. The default, −42, is −2A in hex and 1111 1111 1101 0110 in 16-bit two's complement, which reads as 65,494 when the same bits are treated as unsigned. Decimal 0.1 never ends in binary: it is 0.0(0011), with the block 0011 repeating.
Two's-complement bits are shown for whole numbers at widths from 8 to 128 bits; a value outside the chosen width wraps to its low bits, with a warning.
Checked against: Python 3.8: format(255, 'X'), format(255, 'b'), format(255, 'o')
Checked against: Python 3.8: format(-42 & 0xFFFF, '016b') = '1111111111010110', format(-42 & 0xFFFF, 'X') = 'FFD6', 2**16 − 42 = 65494
Checked against: Python 3.8: format(int(Fraction(1, 10) * 2**12), '012b') = '000110011001'; a separate long-division script finds the remainder cycle of length 4 starting after the first digit
Checked against: Python 3.8: float.fromhex('0x1.8') = 1.5
Multiply each binary digit by 2 raised to its position, counting from 0 at the right, and add the results. 1111 1111 is 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 255, and 101010 is 32 + 8 + 2 = 42. Digits after a binary point use negative powers, so 1.1 is 1 + 1/2 = 1.5.
Divide by 16 repeatedly and write the remainders from last to first, using A–F for 10–15. For 255, 255 ÷ 16 = 15 remainder 15, then 15 ÷ 16 = 0 remainder 15, giving FF; for 1295 the remainders 15, 0 and 5 give 50F. Each hex digit stands for exactly 4 bits, which is why hex is used to write bytes: FF is 1111 1111.
Two's complement is how CPUs store signed integers: a negative number −x in w bits is stored as 2^w − x, so the top bit carries a weight of −2^(w−1). In 16 bits, −42 is 65,536 − 42 = 65,494, or FFD6 in hex. An 8-bit value runs from −128 to 127, so 128 wraps to −128. C23 (ISO/IEC 9899:2024) requires two's complement for signed integers.
A fraction ends in base b only if its denominator, in lowest terms, has no prime factors other than those of b. 0.1 is 1/10, and 10 = 2 × 5, so in binary it repeats forever: 0.000110011…, written 0.0(0011). That is why 0.1 + 0.2 gives 0.30000000000000004 in IEEE 754 double precision, the number type behind JavaScript numbers and Python floats.
Octal (base 8) groups binary digits in threes, and its main use today is Unix file permissions: each digit adds read (4), write (2) and execute (1) for the owner, group and others, so chmod 755 means rwxr-xr-x. Decimal 255 is 377 in octal. Python 3 and JavaScript write octal literals as 0o755; C writes them with a leading zero, 0755.
Accuracy depends on your inputs and the method's assumptions. Decimal arithmetic uses 50 significant digits, but estimates, numerical methods and source data can be less precise; the displayed rounding does not remove those limits. It is checked against 7 worked examples whose answers come from independent sources; for example, “255 to hex” is checked against Python 3.8: format(255, 'X'), format(255, 'b'), format(255, 'o').
Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2, §4.1 Positional number systems and §4.4 Radix conversion; ISO/IEC 9899:2024 (C23) §6.2.6.2 — signed integers use two's complement (draft N3096).
7 worked examples with independently sourced answers ship with this calculator. They run in the test suite; you can run them here too.
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