Read Hexadecimal Number using Scanf() in C

C – Read Hexadecimal Number using Scanf()

To read a hexadecimal number entered by user via standard input in C language, use scanf() function.

scanf() reads input from stdin(standard input), according to the given format and stores the data in the given arguments.

So, to read a hexadecimal number from console, give the format and argument to scanf() function as shown in the following code snippet.

int n;
scanf("%x", n);

Here, %x is the format to read a hexadecimal number and this value is stored in variable n.

Examples

In the following example, we read a hexadecimal number input by the user in standard input to a variable n using scanf() function.

main.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int n;
    printf("Enter hex : ");
    //read input from user to "n"
    scanf("%x", &n);
    //print to console
    printf("You entered %d\n", n);
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter hex : AF
You entered 175
Program ended with exit code: 0

Enter hex : B
You entered 11
Program ended with exit code: 0

Enter hex : -C
You entered -12
Program ended with exit code: 0

Conclusion

In this C Tutorial, we learned how to read a hexadecimal number entered by user via standard input using scanf() function.