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Converting numbers into English

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  • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

    PIEBALDconsult wrote:

    Shows lack of clarity of thought

    Or simple ignorance.

    The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

    P Offline
    P Offline
    PIEBALDconsult
    wrote on last edited by
    #16

    If he were doing VB I'd agree.

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • M Member_5893260

      Because I felt like it. And I am my employer, so it was excellent value!

      L Offline
      L Offline
      Lost User
      wrote on last edited by
      #17

      As a purely fun exercise it's the kind of thing I enjoy doing; I don't think it was good financial value regardless as to who the employer was - although keeping the staff happy is equally important ;)

      MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

      M 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • M Member_5893260

        So I've been enjoying myself at work today: I wrote something to take a number and convert it into English, e.g. "12324.56" becomes "twelve thousand, three hundred and twenty-four point five six". I know this is an old problem: I remember having done this something like 30 years ago, as part of a computer science class, but I actually needed it for something today: in doing it, I was amazed at how many ways there are to achieve it in C# (the last time I wrote it, it was in Algol-60!), and how many little optimizations I was able to add as I sat there looking at each iteration of the code. I ended up trying to keep the code as terse as I could but also as fast as I could, without having too many IFs and things all over the place. I ended up using a bunch of enums and letting the runtime make words out of them, rather than having strings for it: I'm not sure it makes a huge difference, but it just seemed more elegant, somehow. Of course, in a problem like this, there's always the part about trying to stop it saying things like, "two thousand, zero hundred and onety-zero", so part of the fun was trying not to write anything too specific to avoid things like that: in my mind, if I got the algorithm right, that stuff would just sort of work... It's nice having a bit of time on one's hands at work, for a change. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, so I thought I'd share: if anyone else has a better method (and I'm sure they do) then why not join in...? Meanwhile, here's my version:

        public static class Numeric
        {
        private enum Digit
        {
        zero = 0, one = 1, two = 2, three = 3, four = 4,
        five = 5, six = 6, seven = 7, eight = 8, nine = 9
        }

        private enum Teen
        {
        ten = 10, eleven = 11, twelve = 12, thirteen = 13, fourteen = 14,
        fifteen = 15, sixteen = 16, seventeen = 17, eighteen = 18, nineteen = 19
        }

        private enum Ten
        {
        twenty = 2, thirty = 3, forty = 4, fifty = 5,
        sixty = 6, seventy = 7, eighty = 8, ninety = 9
        }

        private enum PowerOfTen
        {
        hundred = 0, thousand = 1, million = 2, billion = 3,
        trillion = 4, quadrillion = 5, quintillion = 6
        }

        /// /// How many powers of ten there are; faster to work this out ahead of time,
        /// and I didn't want to hard-code it into the algorithm...
        ///
        private static int PowersOfTen = Enum.GetValues(typeof(PowerOfTen)).Length;

        /// /// Converts a number to English words
        ///
        /// The number

        P Offline
        P Offline
        PIEBALDconsult
        wrote on last edited by
        #18

        P.S. Maybe look into using a StringBuilder It's too early for a Friday Programming Quiz.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • L Lost User

          As a purely fun exercise it's the kind of thing I enjoy doing; I don't think it was good financial value regardless as to who the employer was - although keeping the staff happy is equally important ;)

          MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Member_5893260
          wrote on last edited by
          #19

          Oh, yeah - I wouldn't bother unless I had a slow day: in this case, I did - it was purely for fun.

          L 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • P PIEBALDconsult

            Needless really, it just wraps the Parse routines you should be using. Extra calls on the stack. Shows lack of clarity of thought.

            M Offline
            M Offline
            Member_5893260
            wrote on last edited by
            #20

            A parser isn't really applicable here: you can't exactly parse a string of digits into English...

            P 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • M Member_5893260

              Oh, yeah - I wouldn't bother unless I had a slow day: in this case, I did - it was purely for fun.

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #21

              You had to go no further than our very own CP[^] or I stole this from StuckOverflow...

              public static string NumberToWords(int number)
              {
              if (number == 0)
              return "zero";

              if (number < 0)
                  return "minus " + NumberToWords(Math.Abs(number));
              
              string words = "";
              
              if ((number / 1000000) > 0)
              {
                  words += NumberToWords(number / 1000000) + " million ";
                  number %= 1000000;
              }
              
              if ((number / 1000) > 0)
              {
                  words += NumberToWords(number / 1000) + " thousand ";
                  number %= 1000;
              }
              
              if ((number / 100) > 0)
              {
                  words += NumberToWords(number / 100) + " hundred ";
                  number %= 100;
              }
              
              if (number > 0)
              {
                  if (words != "")
                      words += "and ";
              
                  var unitsMap = new\[\] { "zero", "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine", "ten", "eleven", "twelve", "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen", "sixteen", "seventeen", "eighteen", "nineteen" };
                  var tensMap = new\[\] { "zero", "ten", "twenty", "thirty", "forty", "fifty", "sixty", "seventy", "eighty", "ninety" };
              
                  if (number < 20)
                      words += unitsMap\[number\];
                  else
                  {
                      words += tensMap\[number / 10\];
                      if ((number % 10) > 0)
                          words += "-" + unitsMap\[number % 10\];
                  }
              }
              
              return words;
              

              }

              MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

              M P 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • M Member_5893260

                So I've been enjoying myself at work today: I wrote something to take a number and convert it into English, e.g. "12324.56" becomes "twelve thousand, three hundred and twenty-four point five six". I know this is an old problem: I remember having done this something like 30 years ago, as part of a computer science class, but I actually needed it for something today: in doing it, I was amazed at how many ways there are to achieve it in C# (the last time I wrote it, it was in Algol-60!), and how many little optimizations I was able to add as I sat there looking at each iteration of the code. I ended up trying to keep the code as terse as I could but also as fast as I could, without having too many IFs and things all over the place. I ended up using a bunch of enums and letting the runtime make words out of them, rather than having strings for it: I'm not sure it makes a huge difference, but it just seemed more elegant, somehow. Of course, in a problem like this, there's always the part about trying to stop it saying things like, "two thousand, zero hundred and onety-zero", so part of the fun was trying not to write anything too specific to avoid things like that: in my mind, if I got the algorithm right, that stuff would just sort of work... It's nice having a bit of time on one's hands at work, for a change. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, so I thought I'd share: if anyone else has a better method (and I'm sure they do) then why not join in...? Meanwhile, here's my version:

                public static class Numeric
                {
                private enum Digit
                {
                zero = 0, one = 1, two = 2, three = 3, four = 4,
                five = 5, six = 6, seven = 7, eight = 8, nine = 9
                }

                private enum Teen
                {
                ten = 10, eleven = 11, twelve = 12, thirteen = 13, fourteen = 14,
                fifteen = 15, sixteen = 16, seventeen = 17, eighteen = 18, nineteen = 19
                }

                private enum Ten
                {
                twenty = 2, thirty = 3, forty = 4, fifty = 5,
                sixty = 6, seventy = 7, eighty = 8, ninety = 9
                }

                private enum PowerOfTen
                {
                hundred = 0, thousand = 1, million = 2, billion = 3,
                trillion = 4, quadrillion = 5, quintillion = 6
                }

                /// /// How many powers of ten there are; faster to work this out ahead of time,
                /// and I didn't want to hard-code it into the algorithm...
                ///
                private static int PowersOfTen = Enum.GetValues(typeof(PowerOfTen)).Length;

                /// /// Converts a number to English words
                ///
                /// The number

                M Offline
                M Offline
                Mark_Wallace
                wrote on last edited by
                #22

                Oh oh, that's not how you do phone numbers.

                I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                M P 2 Replies Last reply
                0
                • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

                  :confused:

                  The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

                  G Offline
                  G Offline
                  Garth J Lancaster
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #23

                  I think maybe he didnt care about the difference I think if I'd been starting out trying to do this I might have started the same way - expecting beginners in C# (ie me) to know why you wouldnt use convert, vs parse is probably not so important as getting the job done - make it work, then make it pretty. Maybe in a test case I'd have found out about how Convert handles (cough) nulls in input and gone 'hmmm, that'll need to change' - not sure the speed difference would be noticeble in the areas - batch processing - that I'd be using it 'g'

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • M Member_5893260

                    So I've been enjoying myself at work today: I wrote something to take a number and convert it into English, e.g. "12324.56" becomes "twelve thousand, three hundred and twenty-four point five six". I know this is an old problem: I remember having done this something like 30 years ago, as part of a computer science class, but I actually needed it for something today: in doing it, I was amazed at how many ways there are to achieve it in C# (the last time I wrote it, it was in Algol-60!), and how many little optimizations I was able to add as I sat there looking at each iteration of the code. I ended up trying to keep the code as terse as I could but also as fast as I could, without having too many IFs and things all over the place. I ended up using a bunch of enums and letting the runtime make words out of them, rather than having strings for it: I'm not sure it makes a huge difference, but it just seemed more elegant, somehow. Of course, in a problem like this, there's always the part about trying to stop it saying things like, "two thousand, zero hundred and onety-zero", so part of the fun was trying not to write anything too specific to avoid things like that: in my mind, if I got the algorithm right, that stuff would just sort of work... It's nice having a bit of time on one's hands at work, for a change. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, so I thought I'd share: if anyone else has a better method (and I'm sure they do) then why not join in...? Meanwhile, here's my version:

                    public static class Numeric
                    {
                    private enum Digit
                    {
                    zero = 0, one = 1, two = 2, three = 3, four = 4,
                    five = 5, six = 6, seven = 7, eight = 8, nine = 9
                    }

                    private enum Teen
                    {
                    ten = 10, eleven = 11, twelve = 12, thirteen = 13, fourteen = 14,
                    fifteen = 15, sixteen = 16, seventeen = 17, eighteen = 18, nineteen = 19
                    }

                    private enum Ten
                    {
                    twenty = 2, thirty = 3, forty = 4, fifty = 5,
                    sixty = 6, seventy = 7, eighty = 8, ninety = 9
                    }

                    private enum PowerOfTen
                    {
                    hundred = 0, thousand = 1, million = 2, billion = 3,
                    trillion = 4, quadrillion = 5, quintillion = 6
                    }

                    /// /// How many powers of ten there are; faster to work this out ahead of time,
                    /// and I didn't want to hard-code it into the algorithm...
                    ///
                    private static int PowersOfTen = Enum.GetValues(typeof(PowerOfTen)).Length;

                    /// /// Converts a number to English words
                    ///
                    /// The number

                    N Offline
                    N Offline
                    NormDroid
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #24

                    How about to roman numerals ;)

                    Software Kinetics - Dependable Software news

                    M P 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • L Lost User

                      What I would ask myself is: Why did you re-invent the wheel? Was this good value for money for your employer? There are many many solutions available to do this (for free) on the interwebs. Why did it need to be 'terse and fast' - surely better to be 'easily readable, debuggable and maintainable'?

                      MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

                      M Offline
                      M Offline
                      Marc A Brown
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #25

                      1. Why not? 2. To learn the language. Beats the heck out of "Hello World". 3. For the same reason people draw doodles. 4. Why not? :)

                      M L 2 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • N NormDroid

                        How about to roman numerals ;)

                        Software Kinetics - Dependable Software news

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Member_5893260
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #26

                        Oh, yeah - that's fun - actually quite difficult!

                        P 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • M Mark_Wallace

                          Oh oh, that's not how you do phone numbers.

                          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          Member_5893260
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #27

                          ROFL!

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • L Lost User

                            You had to go no further than our very own CP[^] or I stole this from StuckOverflow...

                            public static string NumberToWords(int number)
                            {
                            if (number == 0)
                            return "zero";

                            if (number < 0)
                                return "minus " + NumberToWords(Math.Abs(number));
                            
                            string words = "";
                            
                            if ((number / 1000000) > 0)
                            {
                                words += NumberToWords(number / 1000000) + " million ";
                                number %= 1000000;
                            }
                            
                            if ((number / 1000) > 0)
                            {
                                words += NumberToWords(number / 1000) + " thousand ";
                                number %= 1000;
                            }
                            
                            if ((number / 100) > 0)
                            {
                                words += NumberToWords(number / 100) + " hundred ";
                                number %= 100;
                            }
                            
                            if (number > 0)
                            {
                                if (words != "")
                                    words += "and ";
                            
                                var unitsMap = new\[\] { "zero", "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine", "ten", "eleven", "twelve", "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen", "sixteen", "seventeen", "eighteen", "nineteen" };
                                var tensMap = new\[\] { "zero", "ten", "twenty", "thirty", "forty", "fifty", "sixty", "seventy", "eighty", "ninety" };
                            
                                if (number < 20)
                                    words += unitsMap\[number\];
                                else
                                {
                                    words += tensMap\[number / 10\];
                                    if ((number % 10) > 0)
                                        words += "-" + unitsMap\[number % 10\];
                                }
                            }
                            
                            return words;
                            

                            }

                            MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Member_5893260
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #28

                            Yeah - I thought about doing it that way but it wasn't fun to write! I'm sure I overcomplicated it, but - whatever - I had fun!

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • M Marc A Brown

                              1. Why not? 2. To learn the language. Beats the heck out of "Hello World". 3. For the same reason people draw doodles. 4. Why not? :)

                              M Offline
                              M Offline
                              Member_5893260
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #29

                              That's it - it's a doodle!

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • L Lost User

                                mark merrens wrote:

                                Curmudgeonprofessional

                                ftfy

                                MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

                                R Offline
                                R Offline
                                R Giskard Reventlov
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #30

                                _Maxxx_ wrote:

                                Curmudgeonprofessional

                                Pompous ass. That should do it.

                                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                                M L 2 Replies Last reply
                                0
                                • M Member_5893260

                                  Really? Convert's slow? Thanks!

                                  J Offline
                                  J Offline
                                  jschell
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #31

                                  Dan Sutton wrote:

                                  Really? Convert's slow? Thanks!

                                  Good luck ever finding a real application where that has even a measurable impact on performance though.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • M Member_5893260

                                    A parser isn't really applicable here: you can't exactly parse a string of digits into English...

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    PIEBALDconsult
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #32

                                    Convert.ToInt32(N % p); Use a cast. There is only one useful method in Convert -- ChangeType. For all other uses for Convert, there are better alternatives.

                                    M 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • P PIEBALDconsult

                                      Convert.ToInt32(N % p); Use a cast. There is only one useful method in Convert -- ChangeType. For all other uses for Convert, there are better alternatives.

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Member_5893260
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #33

                                      Noted - very good.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                        _Maxxx_ wrote:

                                        Curmudgeonprofessional

                                        Pompous ass. That should do it.

                                        "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                                        M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        Member_5893260
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #34

                                        Concur!

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • L Lost User

                                          You had to go no further than our very own CP[^] or I stole this from StuckOverflow...

                                          public static string NumberToWords(int number)
                                          {
                                          if (number == 0)
                                          return "zero";

                                          if (number < 0)
                                              return "minus " + NumberToWords(Math.Abs(number));
                                          
                                          string words = "";
                                          
                                          if ((number / 1000000) > 0)
                                          {
                                              words += NumberToWords(number / 1000000) + " million ";
                                              number %= 1000000;
                                          }
                                          
                                          if ((number / 1000) > 0)
                                          {
                                              words += NumberToWords(number / 1000) + " thousand ";
                                              number %= 1000;
                                          }
                                          
                                          if ((number / 100) > 0)
                                          {
                                              words += NumberToWords(number / 100) + " hundred ";
                                              number %= 100;
                                          }
                                          
                                          if (number > 0)
                                          {
                                              if (words != "")
                                                  words += "and ";
                                          
                                              var unitsMap = new\[\] { "zero", "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine", "ten", "eleven", "twelve", "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen", "sixteen", "seventeen", "eighteen", "nineteen" };
                                              var tensMap = new\[\] { "zero", "ten", "twenty", "thirty", "forty", "fifty", "sixty", "seventy", "eighty", "ninety" };
                                          
                                              if (number < 20)
                                                  words += unitsMap\[number\];
                                              else
                                              {
                                                  words += tensMap\[number / 10\];
                                                  if ((number % 10) > 0)
                                                      words += "-" + unitsMap\[number % 10\];
                                              }
                                          }
                                          
                                          return words;
                                          

                                          }

                                          MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

                                          P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          PIEBALDconsult
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #35

                                          Not very flexible.

                                          L 1 Reply Last reply
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