Here are 3 ways to convert from decimal to hexadecimal in SQL Server.

Example 1 – The CONVERT() Function

First, we’ll use the CONVERT() function. This allows you to convert between data types in SQL Server.

Here’s an example of using this function to convert a decimal value to hexadecimal:

SELECT CONVERT(VARBINARY(8), 64683) Result;

Result:

+------------+
| Result     |
|------------|
| 0x0000FCAB |
+------------+

In this case, we convert the decimal value 64683 to VARBINARY(8).

Example 2 – The CAST() Function

We can alternatively use the CAST() function to do the same thing as the previous example:

SELECT CAST(64683 AS VARBINARY(8)) Result;

Result:

+------------+
| Result     |
|------------|
| 0x0000FCAB |
+------------+

Note that CAST() and CONVERT() use slightly different syntaxes. In the case of CAST() the value to be cast comes first, whereas it’s the other way around with CONVERT().

Example 3 – The FORMAT() Function

We can also use the FORMAT() function to format the decimal value as a hexadecimal string.

SELECT FORMAT(64683, 'X') Result;

Result:

+----------+
| Result   |
|----------|
| FCAB     |
+----------+

The X argument is what specifies that the resulting format should be hexadecimal.

You can also use a lowercase x to specify that the result uses lowercase letters:

SELECT FORMAT(64683, 'x') Result;

Result:

+----------+
| Result   |
|----------|
| fcab     |
+----------+

This function’s return value is nvarchar. This is different to the other two functions, which return the value as a binary constant (you can tell by the 0x prefix).