DECIMAL Function in Excel: Any Base Back to a Number

DECIMAL Function in Excel: Any Base Back to a Number featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

EngineeringLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2013+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. DECIMAL in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

DECIMAL reverses BASE.

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Syntax

=DECIMAL(text, radix)
Argument What it means
radix 2 to 36.

Examples

Example 1

=DECIMAL("FF", 16)

255.

DECIMAL in practice

Where you will use it

  • Convert base-36 codes back to numbers
  • Read long binary strings
  • Decode hex values

Worked example

TextRadixFormulaResult
FF16=DECIMAL(A2,B2)255
1011012=DECIMAL(A3,B3)45
2N9C36=DECIMAL(A4,B4)123456

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Text with spaces or prefixes like 0xRemove them first with SUBSTITUTE
Letters beyond the radix"G" is invalid in base 16 and gives #NUM!

BASE · HEX2DEC

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📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Engineering & conversion15 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 34 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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