DEC2OCT

Converts a decimal number to octal.

Syntax:

DEC2OCT(number, numdigits)

returns an octal number as text, given the decimal number, which must be between -229 and 229-1 inclusive, and may be text or a number.

The result is an octal number with up to ten digits in two's complement representation.

numdigits is an optional number specifying the number of digits to return.

Example:

DEC2OCT(19)

returns 23 as text.

DEC2OCT("19")

returns 23 as text. DEC2OCT will accept a decimal number given as text.

DEC2OCT(19, 3)

returns 023 as text. Leading zeroes are added to make 3 digits.

DEC2OCT(-2)

returns 7777777776 as text.

Application:

Computer Systems Engineering

Imagine a junior computer systems engineer, Alex, who is working on a legacy system. This system uses an octal-based addressing scheme for its memory registers. The system's diagnostic tools, however, report errors and data in decimal format. To troubleshoot issues, Alex needs to convert the decimal values from the diagnostic tools into the octal format that the system understands.

One day, Alex receives a report about a series of memory errors. The report lists the following memory addresses in decimal format:

255
128
511
64

To investigate these errors, Alex needs to find the corresponding octal addresses. Alex can use the DEC2OCT function to perform this conversion quickly.

Here is a table showing the conversion process:

	Decimal Address (Reported)	Formula	Octal Address (System Format)
	A	B	C
1	255	DEC2OCT(255)	377
2	128	DEC2OCT(128)	200
3	511	DEC2OCT(511)	777
4	64	DEC2OCT(64)	100

Explanation:

Column 1: "Decimal Address (Reported)" This is the input value provided by the diagnostic tools.
Column 2: "Formula" This shows the DEC2OCT function in action. For each decimal value, Alex applies the formula DEC2OCT(decimal_value).
Column 3: "Octal Address (System Format)" This is the output of the function, which provides the converted octal addresses. Alex can now use these octal values to directly interact with the legacy system's memory registers and debug the reported errors.