How to convert a column number (eg. 127) into an e

Question

How do you convert a numerical number to an Excel column name in C# without using automation getting the value directly from Excel.

Excel 2007 has a possible range of 1 to 16384, which is the number of columns that it supports. The resulting values should be in the form of excel column names, e.g. A, AA, AAA etc.

Answer 1

int nCol = 127;
string sChars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
string sCol = "";
while (nCol >= 26)
{
    int nChar = nCol % 26;
    nCol = (nCol - nChar) / 26;
    // You could do some trick with using nChar as offset from 'A', but I am lazy to do it right now.
    sCol = sChars[nChar] + sCol;
}
sCol = sChars[nCol] + sCol;

Update: Peter's comment is right. That's what I get for writing code in the browser. :-) My solution was not compiling, it was missing the left-most letter and it was building the string in reverse order - all now fixed.

Bugs aside, the algorithm is basically converting a number from base 10 to base 26.

Update 2: Joel Coehoorn is right - the code above will return AB for 27. If it was real base 26 number, AA would be equal to A and the next number after Z would be BA.

int nCol = 127;
string sChars = "0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
string sCol = "";
while (nCol > 26)
{
    int nChar = nCol % 26;
    if (nChar == 0)
        nChar = 26;
    nCol = (nCol - nChar) / 26;
    sCol = sChars[nChar] + sCol;
}
if (nCol != 0)
    sCol = sChars[nCol] + sCol;

Answer 2

Same implementaion in Java

public String getExcelColumnName (int columnNumber) 
    {     
        int dividend = columnNumber;   
        int i;
        String columnName = "";     
        int modulo;     
        while (dividend > 0)     
        {        
            modulo = (dividend - 1) % 26;         
            i = 65 + modulo;
            columnName = new Character((char)i).toString() + columnName;        
            dividend = (int)((dividend - modulo) / 26);    
        }       
        return columnName; 
    }  

Answer 3

Refining the original solution (in C#):

public static class ExcelHelper
{
    private static Dictionary<UInt16, String> l_DictionaryOfColumns;

    public static ExcelHelper() {
        l_DictionaryOfColumns = new Dictionary<ushort, string>(256);
    }

    public static String GetExcelColumnName(UInt16 l_Column)
    {
        UInt16 l_ColumnCopy = l_Column;
        String l_Chars = "0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
        String l_rVal = "";
        UInt16 l_Char;


        if (l_DictionaryOfColumns.ContainsKey(l_Column) == true)
        {
            l_rVal = l_DictionaryOfColumns[l_Column];
        }
        else
        {
            while (l_ColumnCopy > 26)
            {
                l_Char = l_ColumnCopy % 26;
                if (l_Char == 0)
                    l_Char = 26;

                l_ColumnCopy = (l_ColumnCopy - l_Char) / 26;
                l_rVal = l_Chars[l_Char] + l_rVal;
            }
            if (l_ColumnCopy != 0)
                l_rVal = l_Chars[l_ColumnCopy] + l_rVal;

            l_DictionaryOfColumns.ContainsKey(l_Column) = l_rVal;
        }

        return l_rVal;
    }
}

Answer 4

Here's how I do it:

private string GetExcelColumnName(int columnNumber)
{
    int dividend = columnNumber;
    string columnName = String.Empty;
    int modulo;

    while (dividend > 0)
    {
        modulo = (dividend - 1) % 26;
        columnName = Convert.ToChar(65 + modulo).ToString() + columnName;
        dividend = (int)((dividend - modulo) / 26);
    } 

    return columnName;
}

Answer 5

I'm surprised all of the solutions so far contain either iteration or recursion.

Here's my solution that runs in constant time (no loops). This solution works for all possible Excel columns and checks that the input can be turned into an Excel column. Possible columns are in the range [A, XFD] or [1, 16384]. (This is dependent on your version of Excel)

private static string Turn(uint col)
{
    if (col < 1 || col > 16384) //Excel columns are one-based (one = 'A')
        throw new ArgumentException("col must be >= 1 and <= 16384");

    if (col <= 26) //one character
        return ((char)(col + 'A' - 1)).ToString();

    else if (col <= 702) //two characters
    {
        char firstChar = (char)((int)((col - 1) / 26) + 'A' - 1);
        char secondChar = (char)(col % 26 + 'A' - 1);

        if (secondChar == '@') //Excel is one-based, but modulo operations are zero-based
            secondChar = 'Z'; //convert one-based to zero-based

        return string.Format("{0}{1}", firstChar, secondChar);
    }

    else //three characters
    {
        char firstChar = (char)((int)((col - 1) / 702) + 'A' - 1);
        char secondChar = (char)((col - 1) / 26 % 26 + 'A' - 1);
        char thirdChar = (char)(col % 26 + 'A' - 1);

        if (thirdChar == '@') //Excel is one-based, but modulo operations are zero-based
            thirdChar = 'Z'; //convert one-based to zero-based

        return string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", firstChar, secondChar, thirdChar);
    }
}

Answer 6

This answer is in javaScript:

function getCharFromNumber(columnNumber){
    var dividend = columnNumber;
    var columnName = "";
    var modulo;

    while (dividend > 0)
    {
        modulo = (dividend - 1) % 26;
        columnName = String.fromCharCode(65 + modulo).toString() + columnName;
        dividend = parseInt((dividend - modulo) / 26);
    } 
    return  columnName;
}