extracting a number from an 8-digit number in a cell

Hi guys, I'm an excel newbie.
i want to extract every digit of a 8bit binary number in A1 to its adjacent cells.

_ _ A1_ _ _ _ A2_ _ _ A3_ _ _ A4_ _ _ A5_ _ _ A6_ _ _ A7_ _ _ A8_ _ _ A9_
10101010 _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _

or better yet if there is a way i want to directly extract a hex number into binary number, but each digit in the resulting binary is shown consecutively on the adjacent number.

_ _ A1_ _ _ _ A2_ _ _ A3_ _ _ A4_ _ _ A5_ _ _ A6_ _ _ A7_ _ _ A8_ _ _ A9_
_ _ AA_ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ _ 0 _

please help.

Hi and welcome to the board

Your first question can be solved using Data - Text to columns - fixed width - and follow the wizard

thanks arthurbr. i'm working on excel2007 and i'm quite new to the thing.
could you be more specific?

Your best bet would be to set up a 2 column table with hex numbers and associated binary numbers, as I don't think (as far as I'm aware) excel has these number formats built in.

Once you have your table (say in columns J&K), use the following formula in B1:

=mid(vlookup($A1,$J:$K,2,false),column()-1,1)

You can then drag this along to column I and this should work. Bear in mind the "column()" reference is dynamic, so if you move this to a different column it won't work. You can change the "column()-1" to just "1", "2", "3", etc. for each column if you want this to be static.

Hope this helps.

brokenbiscuits, thanks very much. i know it is most probably my fault but your
suggestion didn't work for me. thanks very much anyway, appreciate very much.
martindwilson, your solution is simpler, and it works!
can i ask one more thing?
what is the difference between A$1 and $A1 parameters?
Thanks so much for the help, i think excel is beginning to look useful.

got it, thanks very much.