Is there an easy way to convert a number to a word

Question

In PHP, is there an easy way to convert a number to a word? For instance, 27 to twenty-seven.

Answer 1

I found some (2007/2008) source-code online and as it is copyright but I can use it freely and modify it however I want, so I place it here and re-license under CC-Wiki:

<?php
/**
 * English Number Converter - Collection of PHP functions to convert a number
 *                            into English text.
 *
 * This exact code is licensed under CC-Wiki on Stackoverflow.
 * http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
 *
 * @link     http://stackoverflow.com/q/277569/367456
 * @question Is there an easy way to convert a number to a word in PHP?
 *
 * This file incorporates work covered by the following copyright and
 * permission notice:
 *
 *   Copyright 2007-2008 Brenton Fletcher. http://bloople.net/num2text
 *   You can use this freely and modify it however you want.
 */

function convertNumber($number)
{
    list($integer, $fraction) = explode(".", (string) $number);

    $output = "";

    if ($integer{0} == "-")
    {
        $output = "negative ";
        $integer    = ltrim($integer, "-");
    }
    else if ($integer{0} == "+")
    {
        $output = "positive ";
        $integer    = ltrim($integer, "+");
    }

    if ($integer{0} == "0")
    {
        $output .= "zero";
    }
    else
    {
        $integer = str_pad($integer, 36, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);
        $group   = rtrim(chunk_split($integer, 3, " "), " ");
        $groups  = explode(" ", $group);

        $groups2 = array();
        foreach ($groups as $g)
        {
            $groups2[] = convertThreeDigit($g{0}, $g{1}, $g{2});
        }

        for ($z = 0; $z < count($groups2); $z++)
        {
            if ($groups2[$z] != "")
            {
                $output .= $groups2[$z] . convertGroup(11 - $z) . (
                        $z < 11
                        && !array_search('', array_slice($groups2, $z + 1, -1))
                        && $groups2[11] != ''
                        && $groups[11]{0} == '0'
                            ? " and "
                            : ", "
                    );
            }
        }

        $output = rtrim($output, ", ");
    }

    if ($fraction > 0)
    {
        $output .= " point";
        for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($fraction); $i++)
        {
            $output .= " " . convertDigit($fraction{$i});
        }
    }

    return $output;
}

function convertGroup($index)
{
    switch ($index)
    {
        case 11:
            return " decillion";
        case 10:
            return " nonillion";
        case 9:
            return " octillion";
        case 8:
            return " septillion";
        case 7:
            return " sextillion";
        case 6:
            return " quintrillion";
        case 5:
            return " quadrillion";
        case 4:
            return " trillion";
        case 3:
            return " billion";
        case 2:
            return " million";
        case 1:
            return " thousand";
        case 0:
            return "";
    }
}

function convertThreeDigit($digit1, $digit2, $digit3)
{
    $buffer = "";

    if ($digit1 == "0" && $digit2 == "0" && $digit3 == "0")
    {
        return "";
    }

    if ($digit1 != "0")
    {
        $buffer .= convertDigit($digit1) . " hundred";
        if ($digit2 != "0" || $digit3 != "0")
        {
            $buffer .= " and ";
        }
    }

    if ($digit2 != "0")
    {
        $buffer .= convertTwoDigit($digit2, $digit3);
    }
    else if ($digit3 != "0")
    {
        $buffer .= convertDigit($digit3);
    }

    return $buffer;
}

function convertTwoDigit($digit1, $digit2)
{
    if ($digit2 == "0")
    {
        switch ($digit1)
        {
            case "1":
                return "ten";
            case "2":
                return "twenty";
            case "3":
                return "thirty";
            case "4":
                return "forty";
            case "5":
                return "fifty";
            case "6":
                return "sixty";
            case "7":
                return "seventy";
            case "8":
                return "eighty";
            case "9":
                return "ninety";
        }
    } else if ($digit1 == "1")
    {
        switch ($digit2)
        {
            case "1":
                return "eleven";
            case "2":
                return "twelve";
            case "3":
                return "thirteen";
            case "4":
                return "fourteen";
            case "5":
                return "fifteen";
            case "6":
                return "sixteen";
            case "7":
                return "seventeen";
            case "8":
                return "eighteen";
            case "9":
                return "nineteen";
        }
    } else
    {
        $temp = convertDigit($digit2);
        switch ($digit1)
        {
            case "2":
                return "twenty-$temp";
            case "3":
                return "thirty-$temp";
            case "4":
                return "forty-$temp";
            case "5":
                return "fifty-$temp";
            case "6":
                return "sixty-$temp";
            case "7":
                return "seventy-$temp";
            case "8":
                return "eighty-$temp";
            case "9":
                return "ninety-$temp";
        }
    }
}

function convertDigit($digit)
{
    switch ($digit)
    {
        case "0":
            return "zero";
        case "1":
            return "one";
        case "2":
            return "two";
        case "3":
            return "three";
        case "4":
            return "four";
        case "5":
            return "five";
        case "6":
            return "six";
        case "7":
            return "seven";
        case "8":
            return "eight";
        case "9":
            return "nine";
    }
}

Answer 2

There's no built-in way that I'm aware of, but if you have a look at my example code for this question (in C#) it should be easy enough for you to get working. Basically it'd just be a matter of untyping the variables and adding the $ prefix where appropriate and it should work.

Answer 3

I needed a solution that put 'and' into the returned string and formatted it into a sentence - typically as a human would say it. So I adapted a different solution slightly - posted as I thought this could be useful for someone.

4,835,301 returns "Four million eight hundred and thirty five thousand three hundred and one."

Code

function convertNumber($num = false)
{
    $num = str_replace(array(',', ''), '' , trim($num));
    if(! $num) {
        return false;
    }
    $num = (int) $num;
    $words = array();
    $list1 = array('', 'one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine', 'ten', 'eleven',
        'twelve', 'thirteen', 'fourteen', 'fifteen', 'sixteen', 'seventeen', 'eighteen', 'nineteen'
    );
    $list2 = array('', 'ten', 'twenty', 'thirty', 'forty', 'fifty', 'sixty', 'seventy', 'eighty', 'ninety', 'hundred');
    $list3 = array('', 'thousand', 'million', 'billion', 'trillion', 'quadrillion', 'quintillion', 'sextillion', 'septillion',
        'octillion', 'nonillion', 'decillion', 'undecillion', 'duodecillion', 'tredecillion', 'quattuordecillion',
        'quindecillion', 'sexdecillion', 'septendecillion', 'octodecillion', 'novemdecillion', 'vigintillion'
    );
    $num_length = strlen($num);
    $levels = (int) (($num_length + 2) / 3);
    $max_length = $levels * 3;
    $num = substr('00' . $num, -$max_length);
    $num_levels = str_split($num, 3);
    for ($i = 0; $i < count($num_levels); $i++) {
        $levels--;
        $hundreds = (int) ($num_levels[$i] / 100);
        $hundreds = ($hundreds ? ' ' . $list1[$hundreds] . ' hundred' . ( $hundreds == 1 ? '' : '' ) . ' ' : '');
        $tens = (int) ($num_levels[$i] % 100);
        $singles = '';
        if ( $tens < 20 ) {
            $tens = ($tens ? ' and ' . $list1[$tens] . ' ' : '' );
        } elseif ($tens >= 20) {
            $tens = (int)($tens / 10);
            $tens = ' and ' . $list2[$tens] . ' ';
            $singles = (int) ($num_levels[$i] % 10);
            $singles = ' ' . $list1[$singles] . ' ';
        }
        $words[] = $hundreds . $tens . $singles . ( ( $levels && ( int ) ( $num_levels[$i] ) ) ? ' ' . $list3[$levels] . ' ' : '' );
    } //end for loop
    $commas = count($words);
    if ($commas > 1) {
        $commas = $commas - 1;
    }
    $words = implode(' ',  $words);
    $words = preg_replace('/^\s\b(and)/', '', $words );
    $words = trim($words);
    $words = ucfirst($words);
    $words = $words . ".";
    return $words;
}

Answer 4

Alternatively, you can use the NumberFormatter class from intl package in PHP . Here's a sample code to get you started (for commandline):

<?php
if ($argc < 3) 
    {
    echo "usage: php {$argv[0]} lang-tag number ...\n";
    exit;
    }

array_shift($argv);
$lang_tag = array_shift($argv);

$nf1 = new NumberFormatter($lang_tag, NumberFormatter::DECIMAL);
$nf2 = new NumberFormatter($lang_tag, NumberFormatter::SPELLOUT);

foreach ($argv as $num) 
    {
    echo $nf1->format($num).' is '.$nf2->format($num)."\n"; 
    }

Answer 5

I have generated this using a recursive function,.

$wordnum = numberToWord($number);
echo $wordnum."<BR>";

function singledigit($number){
        switch($number){
            case 0:$word = "zero";break;
            case 1:$word = "One";break;
            case 2:$word = "two";break;
            case 3:$word = "three";break;
            case 4:$word = "Four";break;
            case 5:$word = "Five";break;
            case 6:$word = "Six";break;
            case 7:$word = "Seven";break;
            case 8:$word = "Eight";break;
            case 9:$word = "Nine";break;
        }
        return $word;
    }

    function doubledigitnumber($number){
        if($number == 0){
            $word = "";
        }
        else{
            $word = singledigit($number);
        }       
        return $word;
    }

    function doubledigit($number){
        switch($number[0]){
            case 0:$word = doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 1:
                switch($number[1]){
                    case 0:$word = "Ten";break;
                    case 1:$word = "Eleven";break;
                    case 2:$word = "Twelve";break;
                    case 3:$word = "Thirteen";break;
                    case 4:$word = "Fourteen";break;
                    case 5:$word = "Fifteen";break;
                    case 6:$word = "Sixteen";break;
                    case 7:$word = "Seventeen";break;
                    case 8:$word = "Eighteen";break;
                    case 9:$word = "Ninteen";break;
                }break;
            case 2:$word = "Twenty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;                
            case 3:$word = "Thirty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 4:$word = "Forty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 5:$word = "Fifty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 6:$word = "Sixty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 7:$word = "Seventy".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 8:$word = "Eighty".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;
            case 9:$word = "Ninety".doubledigitnumber($number[1]);break;

        }
        return $word;
    }

    function unitdigit($numberlen,$number){
        switch($numberlen){         
            case 3:$word = "Hundred";break;
            case 4:$word = "Thousand";break;
            case 5:$word = "Thousand";break;
            case 6:$word = "Lakh";break;
            case 7:$word = "Lakh";break;
            case 8:$word = "Crore";break;
            case 9:$word = "Crore";break;

        }
        return $word;
    }

    function numberToWord($number){

        $numberlength = strlen($number);
        if ($numberlength == 1) { 
            return singledigit($number);
        }elseif ($numberlength == 2) {
            return doubledigit($number);
        }
        else {

            $word = "";
            $wordin = "";

            if($numberlength == 9){
                if($number[0] >0){
                    $unitdigit = unitdigit($numberlength,$number[0]);
                    $word = doubledigit($number[0].$number[1]) ." ".$unitdigit." ";
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,2));
                }
                else{
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,1));
                }
            }

            if($numberlength == 7){
                if($number[0] >0){
                    $unitdigit = unitdigit($numberlength,$number[0]);
                    $word = doubledigit($number[0].$number[1]) ." ".$unitdigit." ";
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,2));
                }
                else{
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,1));
                }

            }

            if($numberlength == 5){
                if($number[0] >0){
                    $unitdigit = unitdigit($numberlength,$number[0]);
                    $word = doubledigit($number[0].$number[1]) ." ".$unitdigit." ";
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,2));
                }
                else{
                    return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,1));
                }


            }
            else{
                if($number[0] >0){
                    $unitdigit = unitdigit($numberlength,$number[0]);
                    $word = singledigit($number[0]) ." ".$unitdigit." ";
                }               
                return $word." ".numberToWord(substr($number,1));
            }
        }
    }

Answer 6

I found two links for this. The first is a freeware PHP class you could use, the second is a example function you could have a look at and copy or use to write your own.