Converting hexadecimal to float in JavaScript

Try this.

The string may be raw data (simple text) with four characters (0 - 255) or a hex string "0xFFFFFFFF" four bytes in length.

jsfiddle.net

var str = '0x3F160008';

function parseFloat(str) {
    var float = 0, sign, order, mantissa, exp,
    int = 0, multi = 1;
    if (/^0x/.exec(str)) {
        int = parseInt(str, 16);
    }
    else {
        for (var i = str.length -1; i >=0; i -= 1) {
            if (str.charCodeAt(i) > 255) {
                console.log('Wrong string parameter');
                return false;
            }
            int += str.charCodeAt(i) * multi;
            multi *= 256;
        }
    }
    sign = (int >>> 31) ? -1 : 1;
    exp = (int >>> 23 & 0xff) - 127;
    mantissa = ((int & 0x7fffff) + 0x800000).toString(2);
    for (i=0; i<mantissa.length; i+=1) {
        float += parseInt(mantissa[i]) ? Math.pow(2, exp) : 0;
        exp--;
    }
    return float*sign;
}

Another possibility is to parse the digits separately, splitting the string up in two and treating both parts as ints during the conversion and then add them back together.

function parseFloat(str, radix)
{
    var parts = str.split(".");
    if ( parts.length > 1 )
    {
        return parseInt(parts[0], radix) + parseInt(parts[1], radix) / Math.pow(radix, parts[1].length);
    }
    return parseInt(parts[0], radix);
}

var myno = 28.4382;
var convno = myno.toString(16);
var f = parseFloat(convno, 16);
console.log(myno + " -> " + convno + " -> " + f);

Please try this:

function hex2dec(hex) {
    hex = hex.split(/\./);
    var len = hex[1].length;
    hex[1] = parseInt(hex[1], 16);
    hex[1] *= Math.pow(16, -len);
    return parseInt(hex[0], 16) + hex[1];
}

function hex2dec(hex) {
  hex = hex.split(/\./);
  var len = hex[1].length;
  hex[1] = parseInt(hex[1], 16);
  hex[1] *= Math.pow(16, -len);
  return parseInt(hex[0], 16) + hex[1];
}



// ----------
// TEST
// ----------

function calc(hex) {
  let dec = hex2dec(hex);
  msg.innerHTML = `dec: <b>${dec}</b><br>hex test: <b>${dec.toString(16)}</b>`
} 

let init="bad.a55";
inp.value=init;
calc(init);

<input oninput="calc(this.value)" id="inp" /><div id="msg"></div>

I combined Mark's and Kent's answers to make an overloaded parseFloat function that takes an argument for the radix (much simpler and more versatile):

function parseFloat(string, radix)
{
    // Split the string at the decimal point
    string = string.split(/\./);
    
    // If there is nothing before the decimal point, make it 0
    if (string[0] == '') {
        string[0] = "0";
    }
    
    // If there was a decimal point & something after it
    if (string.length > 1 && string[1] != '') {
        var fractionLength = string[1].length;
        string[1] = parseInt(string[1], radix);
        string[1] *= Math.pow(radix, -fractionLength);
        return parseInt(string[0], radix) + string[1];
    }
    
    // If there wasn't a decimal point or there was but nothing was after it
    return parseInt(string[0], radix);
}