XL: Visual Basic Macro to Convert Number to a Different Base

ID: Q135635

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a
Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SUMMARY

This article contains a sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications function that converts an integer number to any base less than 10.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

Following is a sample function called "baseconv" that takes two arguments. The first argument, InputNum, is an integer number to be converted. The second argument, BaseNum, is the number of the base to convert InputNum to.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

   Function baseconv(InputNum, BaseNum)

      Dim quotient, remainder As Single
      Dim answer As String
      quotient = InputNum   ' Set quotient to number to convert.
      remainder = InputNum  ' Set remainder to number to convert.
      answer = ""

      Do While quotient <> 0   ' Loop while quotient is not zero.

         ' Store the remainder of the quotient divided by base number in a
         ' variable called remainder.
         remainder = quotient Mod BaseNum

         ' Reset quotient variable to the integer value of the quotient
         ' divided by base number.
         quotient = Int(quotient / BaseNum)

         ' Reset answer to contain remainder and the previous answer.
         answer = remainder & answer

      Loop
      baseconv = Val(answer)   ' Convert answer variable to a number.

   End Function

The function should be typed in a worksheet cell as follows:

   =baseconv(InputNum, BaseNum)

For example, the following call to the baseconv function:

   =baseconv(100,2)

returns the following value in the cell:

REFERENCES

Microsoft Excel for Windows 95

For more information about user-defined functions, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

   user-defined functions

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Writing a Function procedure" topic.

Microsoft Excel version 5.0

"Visual Basic User's Guide," version 5.0, Chapter 12, "Creating User- Defined Functions"

For more information about user-defined functions, click the Search button in Microsoft Excel Help and type:

   user-defined functions

For information about how to do this in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q69777
   TITLE     : Macro to Convert Decimal Number to a Different Base

Additional query words: 5.00 5.00a 5.00c 7.00 8.00 97 98 XL98 XL97 XL7 XL5 custom

Keywords          : kbprg kbdta kbdtacode PgmHowto xlformula KbVBA 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0c,7.0,97; MACINTOSH:5.0,5.0a,98
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: May 17, 1999