How to convert decimal to hexadecimal in JavaScript

Question

How do you convert decimal values to their hexadecimal equivalent in JavaScript?

Answer 1

function dec2hex(i)
{
  var result = "0000";
  if      (i >= 0    && i <= 15)    { result = "000" + i.toString(16); }
  else if (i >= 16   && i <= 255)   { result = "00"  + i.toString(16); }
  else if (i >= 256  && i <= 4095)  { result = "0"   + i.toString(16); }
  else if (i >= 4096 && i <= 65535) { result =         i.toString(16); }
  return result
}

Answer 2

Convert a number to a hexadecimal string with:

hexString = yourNumber.toString(16);

And reverse the process with:

yourNumber = parseInt(hexString, 16);

Answer 3

If you need to handle things like bit fields or 32-bit colors, then you need to deal with signed numbers. The JavaScript function toString(16) will return a negative hexadecimal number which is usually not what you want. This function does some crazy addition to make it a positive number.

function decimalToHexString(number)
{
  if (number < 0)
  {
    number = 0xFFFFFFFF + number + 1;
  }

  return number.toString(16).toUpperCase();
}

console.log(decimalToHexString(27));
console.log(decimalToHexString(48.6));

Answer 4

The code below will convert the decimal value d to hexadecimal. It also allows you to add padding to the hexadecimal result. So 0 will become 00 by default.

function decimalToHex(d, padding) {
    var hex = Number(d).toString(16);
    padding = typeof (padding) === "undefined" || padding === null ? padding = 2 : padding;

    while (hex.length < padding) {
        hex = "0" + hex;
    }

    return hex;
}

Answer 5

For completeness, if you want the two's-complement hexadecimal representation of a negative number, you can use the zero-fill-right shift >>> operator. For instance:

> (-1).toString(16)
"-1"

> ((-2)>>>0).toString(16)
"fffffffe"

There is however one limitation: JavaScript bitwise operators treat their operands as a sequence of 32 bits, that is, you get the 32-bits two's complement.

Answer 6

As the accepted answer states, the easiest way to convert from decimal to hexadecimal is var hex = dec.toString(16). However, you may prefer to add a string conversion, as it ensures that string representations like "12".toString(16) work correctly.

// Avoids a hard-to-track-down bug by returning `c` instead of `12`
(+"12").toString(16);

To reverse the process you may also use the solution below, as it is even shorter.

var dec = +("0x" + hex);

It seems to be slower in Google Chrome and Firefox, but is significantly faster in Opera. See http://jsperf.com/hex-to-dec.