Developer Bases

Number base converter

Value
From base
To base
Converted 255
Base 16 → base 10
And every common base
Decimal 255
Binary 11111111
Octal 377
Hexadecimal FF
Base 32 7V
Base 36 73
Bits needed 8
Note
Bases 2 to 36 · digits 0–9 then A–Z
DecimalBinaryOctalHex
0000
1111
81000108
10101012A
15111117F
16100002010
64100000010040
100110010014464
25511111111377FF
256100000000400100
1024100000000002000400
655351111111111111111177777FFFF

Base 36 uses all ten numerals and all twenty-six letters, which is as far as a case-insensitive alphanumeric alphabet goes. Base 62 exists by distinguishing upper and lower case, and Base64 adds two symbols on top, but those are encodings for binary data rather than positional number systems, which is why the general converter stops at 36.

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A positional base uses digits worth successive powers of the base. Base 36 uses 0–9 then A–Z, which is the largest case-insensitive alphanumeric base. FF in base 16 is 255 in base 10, 11111111 in base 2 and 73 in base 36.

How to convert between bases

1 Enter the value and say which base it is written in.
2 Choose the base you want it in.
3 Read the result, plus decimal, binary, octal, hex, base 32 and base 36 underneath.
4 A digit the source base cannot hold is named as an error rather than skipped.

Converting between two arbitrary bases is done by going through decimal, which is what this tool does internally. The exception is when one base is a power of the other; hex to binary, octal to binary. Where direct digit substitution works and needs no arithmetic. That shortcut is why those particular pairs feel so much easier than, say, base 7 to base 13.

Base 36 is where the compactness argument lives: 1234567890 becomes KF12OI, ten digits down to six, which is why short identifiers and URL slugs are often generated this way. The row labelled base 32 is a positional base in the same family, using 0–9 then A–V. It is not RFC 4648 Base32, and neither is it Base64. Those encode arbitrary bytes using a chosen alphabet, which is a different job from writing a number in a base, and the base64 encoder is the tool for it.

One honest limit: the arithmetic runs in double-precision floating point, so values above 9007199254740991 stop being exact. Below that everything here is exact in every base. Fractions are refused rather than truncated, and a leading minus sign is understood.

Questions

Anything from 2 to 36. Base 36 uses 0–9 then A–Z.

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Was this tool any good?
Internal signal only · I use it to find the tools worth rebuilding