Hextobinary

Hextobinary is the process of converting hexadecimal data into its binary representation. In computing, hex is a base-16 numeral system commonly used to express binary data in a compact, human-readable form. The term hextobinary can refer to the general method, a tool, or a function that performs the conversion.

The core rule is simple: each hexadecimal digit corresponds to four binary bits. The digits 0–9 map to 0000–1001, and the letters A–F (case-insensitive) map to 1010–1111. To convert a hex string to binary, replace every hex digit with its four-bit binary equivalent. If the hex string is prefixed with 0x, the prefix is usually ignored for the conversion.

Example: hex 2F3A becomes binary 0010 1111 0011 1010.

Applications include interpreting memory dumps, debugging network data, or converting cryptographic keys and binary files for display. It is important to preserve leading zeros; trimming can change the data length. For binary data representing bytes, the total binary length is four times the number of hex digits. Endianness only matters when interpreting the resulting bits as numeric values rather than as a raw bit sequence.

In software, conversion is typically provided by standard library functions or simple mapping routines. Conversely, converting binary to hex reverses the process by grouping bits into fours. The concept underpins many data-encoding schemes and is closely related to other bases used in computing.