How to Use Excel's BIN2OCT Function

Excel's BIN2OCT function converts a binary number (base 2) to an octal number (base 8). This conversion is frequently needed in computing and engineering because machine language is in binary and some character sequences are expressed in octal code. The following steps will show how to use Excel's BIN2OCT function.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Install the Analysis ToolPak if BIN2OCT returns the #NAME? error value. Select the Add-Ins menu item from the Tools menu, check the box next to the Analysis ToolPak and click on the OK button to install the Analysis ToolPak.
2. Learn the syntax for BIN2OCT. It's BIN2OCT(value[,precision]) where value is the binary number to convert and precision is an optional argument specifying the minimum number of digits that the return octal value will have.
3. Ensure value is not longer than 10 bits including the sign bit. Negative numbers may be expressed with two’s complement notation. BIN2OCT will ignore precision and return a 10-digit octal number if value is negative.
4. Interpret the error values that may be returned by BIN2OCT. The #VALUE! error value will be returned if precision is non-numeric. The #NUM! error value will be returned if value is not a binary number, value has more than 10 bits, the return value needs more than precision digits or precision is negative.
5. Look at an example of BIN2OCT. =BIN2OCT(1001,3) returns 0011 because 1001 in binary is 9, which is 11 in octal. Note that this answer was padded with an additional zero to give a return value with three digits as specified by precision.

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