Hex to Decimal Converter

1. Conversion of hex numbers to decimals
2. How to convert hex to decimal
3. Hex to decimal conversion table

    Conversion of hex numbers to decimals

Hexadecimals, or hex numbers, are used primarily in computer engineering since programming code and character tables like Unicode are often represented as numbers in the hexadecimal system in which we have 16 symbols corresponding to the decimal numbers from 0 to 15 (0-9 and the letters A-F). Sometimes a conversion from hex to decimal representation of a number is needed to facilitate better understanding of a piece of code or for communicating it to non-engineers. Conversion tasks are often given in school or university course exams to test how well a student understands the hex system of numbers.

Since the two types of numbers are simply representations of the same value under a different radix (base), the conversion involves exponent calculations which become quite cumbersome so for any large number it is most practical to use an online hex to dec converter.

    How to convert hex to decimal

To understand conversion from hexadecimal to decimal numbers we start by remembering that each position in a hexadecimal numeral represents a power of 16 the same way each position in a decimal number represents a power of 10. For example, the number 20 in decimal is 2 · 10¹ + 0 · 10⁰ = 20. The hex number 20 is then 2 · 16¹ + 0 · 16⁰ = 32 in dec. Similarly, the number 1E is 1 · 16 + 14 · 1 = 30 in decimal.

The process of hex to decimal conversion is then as follows: first, take each position and convert it to decimal, e.g. 9 is 9, but B is converted to 11. Second, multiply each position by 16 to the power of the position number, counting from right to left and starting at zero. If you need to calculate large exponents like 16⁸ you might find our exponent calculator useful.

    Hex to decimal conversion table

If you decide to manually convert, this table can be useful as a reference: