# Converting hex floats **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 4, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/converting-hex-floats/59543 "2006-05-04T00:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![burrowsm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@burrowsm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/burrowsm)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/converting-hex-floats/59543/1 "2006-05-04T00:44:19Z")
What is the easiest way to convert a hex value like: 0x000000000000F03F (big endian, IEEE754) to a Float in Ruby? Thanks, Matt ---
**Author:** ![burrowsm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@burrowsm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/burrowsm)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/converting-hex-floats/59543/2 "2006-05-04T01:03:11Z")
On 3-May-06, at 6:44 PM, Matt Bauer wrote: > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). Probably using pack and unpack, my first guess is something like irb(main):001:0\> [0x000000000000F03F].pack(‘Q’).unpack(‘G’) =\> [3.03865194161742e-319] but now I have to look up IEEE and it looks reasonable: irb(main):002:0\> [0x0000000000000000].pack(‘Q’).unpack(‘G’) =\> [0.0] irb(main):003:0\> [0x8000000000000000].pack(‘Q’).unpack(‘G’) =\> [-0.0] and using a sample single precision number in binary from http:// www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/ieee/ieee.html 0 10000001 10100000000000000000000 = +1 \* 2\*\*(129-127) \* 1.101 = 6.5 irb(main):005:0\> [0b01000000110100000000000000000000].pack(‘L’).unpack (‘g’) =\> [6.5] Hope this helps, Mike – Mike S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [http://www.stok.ca/~mike/](http://www.stok.ca/~mike/) The “`Stok’ disclaimers” apply.