Here's a start that should get you to hundreds of thousands.
word2num <- function(word){
wsplit <- strsplit(tolower(word)," ")[[1]]
one_digits <- list(zero=0, one=1, two=2, three=3, four=4, five=5,
six=6, seven=7, eight=8, nine=9)
teens <- list(eleven=11, twelve=12, thirteen=13, fourteen=14, fifteen=15,
sixteen=16, seventeen=17, eighteen=18, nineteen=19)
ten_digits <- list(ten=10, twenty=20, thirty=30, forty=40, fifty=50,
sixty=60, seventy=70, eighty=80, ninety=90)
doubles <- c(teens,ten_digits)
out <- 0
i <- 1
while(i <= length(wsplit)){
j <- 1
if(i==1 && wsplit[i]=="hundred")
temp <- 100
else if(i==1 && wsplit[i]=="thousand")
temp <- 1000
else if(wsplit[i] %in% names(one_digits))
temp <- as.numeric(one_digits[wsplit[i]])
else if(wsplit[i] %in% names(teens))
temp <- as.numeric(teens[wsplit[i]])
else if(wsplit[i] %in% names(ten_digits))
temp <- (as.numeric(ten_digits[wsplit[i]]))
if(i < length(wsplit) && wsplit[i+1]=="hundred"){
if(i>1 && wsplit[i-1] %in% c("hundred","thousand"))
out <- out + 100*temp
else
out <- 100*(out + temp)
j <- 2
}
else if(i < length(wsplit) && wsplit[i+1]=="thousand"){
if(i>1 && wsplit[i-1] %in% c("hundred","thousand"))
out <- out + 1000*temp
else
out <- 1000*(out + temp)
j <- 2
}
else if(i < length(wsplit) && wsplit[i+1] %in% names(doubles)){
temp <- temp*100
out <- out + temp
}
else{
out <- out + temp
}
i <- i + j
}
return(list(word,out))
}
Results:
> word2num("fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 57
> word2num("four fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "four fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 457
> word2num("six thousand four fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "six thousand four fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 6457
> word2num("forty six thousand four fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "forty six thousand four fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 46457
> word2num("forty six thousand four hundred fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "forty six thousand four hundred fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 46457
> word2num("three forty six thousand four hundred fifty seven")
[[1]]
[1] "three forty six thousand four hundred fifty seven"
[[2]]
[1] 346457
I can tell you already that this won't work for word2num("four hundred thousand fifty")
, because it doesn't know how to handle consecutive "hundred" and "thousand" terms, but the algorithm can be modified probably. Anyone should feel free to edit this if they have improvements or build on them in their own answer. I just thought this was a fun problem to play with (for a little while).
Edit: Apparently Bill Venables has a package called english that may achieve this even better than the above code.
Here's what I think is a better solution.
library(stringdist)
library(gdata)
#Convert numeric words to digits
isNumericWord=function(string, dist=1, method="dl"){
nums=c("zero","one","two","three","four","five","six","seven","eight","nine",
"ten","eleven","twelve","thirteen","fourteen","fifteen","sixteen","seventeen","eighteen","nineteen",
"twenty","thirty","forty","fifty","sixty","seventy","eighty","ninety",
"hundred","thousand","million","billion","trillion")
return(any(stringdist(tolower(string),nums,method=method)<=dist))
}
numberTypes=function(string, dist=1, method="dl"){
nums=c("zero","one","two","three","four","five","six","seven","eight","nine",
"ten","eleven","twelve","thirteen","fourteen","fifteen","sixteen","seventeen","eighteen","nineteen",
"twenty","thirty","forty","fifty","sixty","seventy","eighty","ninety",
"hundred","thousand","million","billion","trillion")
string=gsub("[[:punct:]]"," ",string)
wrdsplit=strsplit(string,split=" ")[[1]]
wrdsplit=wrdsplit[wrdsplit!=""]
#Handle number types
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("first",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"one st",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("second",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"two nd",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("third",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","three rd",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("fourth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","four th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("fifth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","five th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("sixth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","six th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("seventh",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","seven th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("eighth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","eight th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("ninth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(wrdsplit,nchar(wrdsplit),nchar(wrdsplit)))!="y","nine th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("tenth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"ten th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("twentieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"twenty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("thirtieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"thirty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("fortieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"forty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("fiftieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"fifty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("sixtieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"sixty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("seventieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"seventy th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("eightieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"eighty th",wrdsplit)
wrdsplit=ifelse(stringdist("ninetieth",tolower(wrdsplit),method=method)<=dist,"ninety th",wrdsplit)
#Handle other number words that end in "th"
if(length(wrdsplit)>0){
for(i in 1:length(wrdsplit)){
substr_end=substr(wrdsplit[i],(nchar(wrdsplit[i])-1),nchar(wrdsplit[i]))
substr_beg=substr(wrdsplit[i],1,(nchar(wrdsplit[i])-2))
if(substr_end=="th" & nchar(wrdsplit[i])!=2 & any(stringdist(tolower(substr_beg),nums,method=method)<=dist)){
wrdsplit[i]=paste(substr_beg, substr_end,sep=" ")
}
}
return(gsub(" "," ",paste(wrdsplit,collapse=" ")))
}else{
return("")
}
}
#Convert number words to digits
Word2Num=function(string, dist=1, method="dl"){
original=string
#Define numbers
one_digits = list(zero=0, one=1, two=2, three=3, four=4, five=5,
six=6, seven=7, eight=8, nine=9)
teens = list(eleven=11, twelve=12, thirteen=13, fourteen=14, fifteen=15,
sixteen=16, seventeen=17, eighteen=18, nineteen=19)
ten_digits = list(ten=10, twenty=20, thirty=30, forty=40, fifty=50,
sixty=60, seventy=70, eighty=80, ninety=90)
large_digits = list(hundred=100, thousand=1000, million=1e6, billion=1e9, trillion=1e12)
double_digits = c(teens,ten_digits)
#Split the string into words
string=gsub("-"," ",gsub(" & ", " and ",string,ignore.case=T))
string=numberTypes(string)
wrdsplit=strsplit(tolower(string)," ")[[1]]
wrdsplit=wrdsplit[wrdsplit!=""]
isNumber=apply(data.frame(wrdsplit),1,isNumericWord)
#Find groups of numbers
if(exists("groups")){
suppressWarnings(rm(groups))
}
i=1
while(i <= length(wrdsplit)){
if(isNumber[i]==T){
if(!exists("groups")){
groups=list(wrdsplit[i])
}else if(exists("groups")){
groups=c(groups, wrdsplit[i])
}
for(j in (i+1):length(wrdsplit)){
if(isNumber[j]){
groups[[length(groups)]]=c(groups[[length(groups)]],wrdsplit[j])
i=j+1
}else{
i=i+1
break
}
}
}else{
i=i+1
}
}
#Convert numeric words to numbers
if(exists("groups")){
groupNums=groups
for(j in 1:length(groups)){
for(i in 1:length(groups[[j]])){
#If word is a single digit number
if(any(stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(one_digits),method=method)<=dist &
tolower(substr(groups[[j]][i],nchar(groups[[j]][i]),nchar(groups[[j]][i])))!="y")){
#If word is a single digit number
groupNums[[j]][i]=one_digits[stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(one_digits),method=method)<=dist][[1]]
}else if(any(stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(double_digits),method=method)<=dist)){
#If word is a double digit number
groupNums[[j]][i]=double_digits[stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(double_digits),method=method)<=dist][[1]]
}else if(any(stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(large_digits),method=method)<=dist)){
#If word is a large digit number
groupNums[[j]][i]=large_digits[stringdist(groups[[j]][i],names(large_digits),method=method)<=dist][[1]]
}
}
}
#Convert the separated numbers to a single number
defscipen=options("scipen")[[1]]
options(scipen=999)
for(i in 1:length(groups)){
if(length(groupNums[[i]])==1){
groupNums[[i]]=as.numeric(groupNums[[i]][1])
}else{
while(length(groupNums[[i]])>=2){
if(nchar(groupNums[[i]][2])>nchar(groupNums[[i]][1])){
#If the next word has more digits than the current word, multiply them
temp=as.numeric(groupNums[[i]][1])*as.numeric(groupNums[[i]][2])
}else if(nchar(groupNums[[i]][2])<nchar(groupNums[[i]][1])){
#if the next word has less digits than the current word, add them
temp=as.numeric(groupNums[[i]][1])+as.numeric(groupNums[[i]][2])
}
#Combine the results
if(length(groupNums[[i]])>2){
groupNums[[i]]=c(temp, groupNums[[i]][3:length(groupNums[[i]])])
}else{
groupNums[[i]]=temp
}
}
}
}
#Recreate the original string
groupNums=lapply(groupNums, as.character)
options(scipen=defscipen)
for(i in 1:length(groups)){
wrdsplit[which(wrdsplit==groups[[i]][1])]=groupNums[[i]][1]
if(length(groups[[i]]>1)){
wrdsplit[which(wrdsplit==groups[[i]][2:length(groups)])]=""
}
}
#Combine numbers with their endings
wrdsplit=wrdsplit[wrdsplit!=""]
if(any(wrdsplit[which(wrdsplit %in% unlist(groupNums))+1] %in% c("rd","th","st","nd"))){
locs=which(wrdsplit %in% unlist(groupNums))
for(i in length(locs):1){
wrdsplit[locs[i]]=paste(wrdsplit[c(locs[i],(locs[i]+1))],collapse="")
wrdsplit=wrdsplit[-(locs[i]+1)]
}
}
return(trim(paste(wrdsplit,collapse=" ")))
}else{
return(original)
}
}