Converting Between Binary, Hex, Octal, and Decimal

[Lancelot59]

I'm taking a microcontrollers course and need to know how to convert between base 2, 8, 16, and 10. I understand how each base works, however I'm finding it hard to convert between them. What are some good methods to use when converting bases?

 

[Matterwave]

I find the easiest way (by hand) is to just make grids.

I.e.

32|16|8|4|2|1

or

1048576|65536|4096|256|16|1

And then fill them out, and add up the numbers.

 

[Lancelot59]

I know of that method, but I don't think it would be very effective for large numbers...is it?

 

[Matterwave]

I suppose there are faster ways...

Read the number of elements and multiply each element by the base to the power of the place of that element (counting the right most element as place 0). Like, for if we have the number:

xyztu

In base b. Then there are 5 elements, so in decimal, it's just:

x*b^4+y*b^3+z*b^2+t*b^1+u*b^0

e.g. For Hex:
13ae3
1*16^4+3*16^3+11*16^2+15*16^1+3

I don't really know of any faster ways than this...I'll think about it and see if i can think up something haha.

 

[vela]

Converting between binary and octal or hexadecimal is pretty easy.

Binary to octal:

000 = 0
001 = 1
010 = 2
011 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5
110 = 6
111 = 7

For example, octal 436 = binary 100 011 110.

Similarly, between binary and hexadecimal, you have

0000 = 0
0001 = 1
0010 = 2
0011 = 3
0100 = 4
0101 = 5
0110 = 6
0111 = 7
1000 = 8
1001 = 9
1010 = A
1011 = B
1100 = C
1101 = D
1110 = E
1111 = F

Binary 1101 1110 1010 1101 = Hex DEAD

For converting between decimal and the other bases, all I can suggest is knowing your multiples and powers of 2, 8, and 16. Sometimes converting binary to hex and then to decimal requires less work than going straight from base 2 to base 10, and likewise in the reverse direction.

 

[Lancelot59]

Ok, so how about conversions to/from decimal?

I suppose there are faster ways...

Read the number of elements and multiply each element by the base to the power of the place of that element (counting the right most element as place 0). Like, for if we have the number:

xyztu

In base b. Then there are 5 elements, so in decimal, it's just:

x*b^4+y*b^3+z*b^2+t*b^1+u*b^0

e.g. For Hex:
13ae3
1*16^4+3*16^3+11*16^2+15*16^1+3

I don't really know of any faster ways than this...I'll think about it and see if i can think up something haha.

I don't really understand how that method works, care to enlighten me?

 

[Matterwave]

It's the same method with the grids, just without the grids. XD

When you make a grid, it's just:

b^4|b^3|b^2|b^1|b^0 etc. (in binary then it's 16|8|4|2|1)

Filling out your numbers there. Without the grid, it's just 0th power, 1st power, 2nd power, etc of your base. All you really need to know is the length of the string of numbers.

 

[vela]

One trick is to use a higher base, like base 256. For instance, suppose you wanted to know what x=hex 6450 is in decimal. Instead of saying

x = 6*16^3+4*16^2+5*16+0*1 = 25680

which requires you to calculate what 16^3 is, you could write

x = (16*6+4)*256^1 + (16*5)*256^0 = 100*256+80 = 25680

This method saves you a bit of effort because you don't need to know or calculate as many powers of 16 and because converting between hex and decimal is easier for the values from 0 to 255, especially if you know your multiples of 16 up to 16x15.