Binary

Binary is a numbering system with only two digit values: 0 (zero) and 1 (one). These digits are called bits.

Conversion functions

Use the following conversion PL/SQL functions to convert binary values to decimal and vice versa:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION bin2dec (binval in char) RETURN number IS
  i                 number;
  digits            number;
  result            number := 0;
  current_digit     char(1);
  current_digit_dec number;
BEGIN
  digits := length(binval);
  for i in 1..digits loop
     current_digit := SUBSTR(binval, i, 1);
     current_digit_dec := to_number(current_digit);
     result := (result * 2) + current_digit_dec;
  end loop;
  return result;
END bin2dec;
/
 
SQL> SELECT bin2dec('10110') FROM dual;
BIN2DEC('10110')
----------------
              22

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dec2bin (N in number) RETURN varchar2 IS
  binval varchar2(64);
  N2     number := N;
BEGIN
  while ( N2 > 0 ) loop
     binval := mod(N2, 2) || binval;
     N2 := trunc( N2 / 2 );
  end loop;
  return binval;
END dec2bin;
/

SQL> SELECT dec2bin(22) FROM dual;
DEC2BIN(22)
----------------
10110

Conversion

Simple decimal to binary conversion table:

Decimal	Binary
0	0000 0000
1	0000 0001
2	0000 0010
3	0000 0011
4	0000 0100
5	0000 0101
6	0000 0110
7	0000 0111
8	0000 1000
9	0000 1001
10	0000 1010

Also see

• bit - Oracle bit-operator functions
• Octal - numbering system with 8 digits
• Hexadecimal - numbering system with 16 digits

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