  Masses are a fundamental parameter, but they are not well known for most hot
subdwarfs. In general, the mass of a hot subdwarf is derived with
asteroseismology or dynamical methods, for which it is often difficult to
obtain the necessary data from observations. We intend to find an approach to
deriving the masses of hot subdwarfs from observational data in the literature.
We presented full evolutionary calculations for hot subdwarfs in a wide mass
range (0.33 $M_\odot$ to 1.4 $M_\odot$) for a Population I metallicity of
$Z$=0.02, and obtained a relation between $M_{\rm p}$ and $\log (\frac{T_{\rm
eff}^4}{g})$, where $M_{\rm p}$, $T_{\rm eff}$, and $g$ are the most probable
mass, effective temperature, and gravity. This relation is used to study the
masses of some observed hot subdwarfs. We proposed a method of determining the
masses of hot subdwarfs. Using this method, we studied the masses of hot
subdwarfs from the ESO supernova Ia progenitor survey and Hamburg quasar
survey. The study shows that most of subdwarf B stars have masses between 0.42
and 0.54 $M_\odot$, whilst most sdO stars are in the range 0.40 $\sim$ 0.55
$M_\odot$. Comparing our study to the theoretical mass distributions of Han et
al. (2003), we found that sdO stars with mass less than $\sim$ 0.5 $M_\odot$
may evolve from sdB stars, whilst most high-mass($>$ 0.5 $M_\odot$) sdO stars
result from mergers directly.
