Re: number to word converter

Here is a slightly more readable number-to-English converter. It will deal with negative numbers and recognizes zero; it's table-driven, so it shouldn't be too hard to convert to other languages. It will convert anything in +/- 10^30. This should be pretty comprehensive; if not, extend the triplets table (and email me to explain what on Earth you're doing with it!! ;-) <?php // Hugh Bothwell hugh_bothwell@hotmail.com // August 31 2001 // Number-to-word converter $ones = array( "", " one", " two", " three", " four", " five", " six", " seven", " eight", " nine", " ten", " eleven", " twelve", " thirteen", " fourteen", " fifteen", " sixteen", " seventeen", " eighteen", " nineteen" ); $tens = array( "", "", " twenty", " thirty", " forty", " fifty", " sixty", " seventy", " eighty", " ninety" ); $triplets = array( "", " thousand", " million", " billion", " trillion", " quadrillion", " quintillion", " sextillion", " septillion", " octillion", " nonillion" ); // recursive fn, converts three digits per pass function convertTri($num, $tri) { global $ones, $tens, $triplets; // chunk the number, ...rxyy $r = (int) ($num / 1000); $x = ($num / 100) % 10; $y = $num % 100; // init the output string $str = ""; // do hundreds if ($x > 0) $str = $ones[$x] . " hundred"; // do ones and tens if ($y < 20) $str .= $ones[$y]; else $str .= $tens[(int) ($y / 10)] . $ones[$y % 10]; // add triplet modifier only if there // is some output to be modified... if ($str != "") $str .= $triplets[$tri]; // continue recursing? if ($r > 0) return convertTri($r, $tri+1).$str; else return $str; } // returns the number as an anglicized string function convertNum($num) { $num = (int) $num; // make sure it's an integer if ($num < 0) return "negative".convertTri(-$num, 0); if ($num == 0) return "zero"; return convertTri($num, 0); } ?> and a test fn I wrote, <?php function randThousand() { return mt_rand(0,999); } // Returns an integer in -10^9 .. 10^9 // with log distribution function makeLogRand() { $sign = mt_rand(0,1)*2 - 1; $val = randThousand() * 1000000 + randThousand() * 1000 + randThousand(); $scale = mt_rand(-9,0); return $sign * (int) ($val * pow(10.0, $scale)); } // example of usage for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i++) { $num = makeLogRand(); echo "<br>$num: ".convertNum($num); } ?> Usage is simple: convertNum(integer) returns a string, the value in English. Hope this helps.