WordCurrency Count Function

[madhavr]

hi all

im trying to write a function which takes a double value e.g. 146.64 or 2345.56 ... etc

for each of these amounts i need an appropriate word count corresponding to each amount for hard copy output.

to be more specific lets take 146.77

this gives us in words "ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX POUNDS AND SEVENTY SEVEN PENCE"

PRINTING THIS ON A CHEQUE SHOULD BE SUCH THAT THE SENTENCE IS LIMITED TO 6 WORDS PER SENTENCE THEREFORE I WOULD GET A RETURN OF 6 FROM RUNNING THIS AMOUNT THROUGH THE FUNCTION.

to explain why 6 is the most appropriate is fairly simple. when printed out on a cheque. the cheque only allows two lines to write the word amount on and hence the most appropirate fashion in this case is ....

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX POUNDS

AND SEVENTY SEVEN PENCE

imagine the hyphens above are the cheque line will make things easier to understand. looking at the above it seems natural to start the next sentence with the and which is why i chose 6 as the word limit.

similarly the system should genereate appropriate word limits for certain amounts e.g. 167, 456.54 this could be limited to say 6 words so the return would be 6.

if anyone can help me out here i would appreicate it greatly.

[thessoro]

quite interesting. but i haven't understood completely your question. You want to write a function to convert a number into words or a function to count 6 words?
I'd suggest you doing:
One function that returns the whole sentence "three hundred and fourty one pounds and nine pence".
and then just format the output.

$string=explode (" ",function_for_wording_a_number('455.23'));
while ($there_are_lines_left_in_the_check) {
     $num=sizeof ($string);
     for ($i=0;$i<6&&$i<$num;$i++) {
          echo $string[0]." ";
          $string=array_shift ($string);
     }
     echo "<br>"; // or whatever you have to do for changing the line.
}

this is the very first idea i've had for doing that, surely there are easier ways to do it...

[BeastRider]

OK... here is the heavy lifting... a couple of functions that convert a float into a word string. I've written a script called wordtest.php to check it out.

It calls the function makewords.php with a float.

makewords.php has a dependent funtion called getwords.php.

Both are in the script below.

Seems to work fine with all the examples I have run. It is not optimized. I'll leave it to you to split the final output into multiple lines.

wordtest.php

<?php

//**********************************************
// this function converts an amount into alpha words
// and adds the words dollars and cents.  Pass it a float.
// works up to 999,999,999.99 dollars - send me a check
//**********************************************

function makewords($numval)
{
$moneystr = "";
// handle the millions
$milval = (integer)($numval / 1000000);
if($milval > 0)
  {
  $moneystr = getwords($milval) . " Million";
  }

// handle the thousands
$workval = $numval - ($milval * 1000000); // get rid of millions
$thouval = (integer)($workval / 1000);
if($thouval > 0)
  {
  $workword = getwords($thouval);
  if ($moneystr == "")
    {
    $moneystr = $workword . " Thousand";
    }
  else
    {
    $moneystr .= " " . $workword . " Thousand";
    }
  }

// handle all the rest of the dollars
$workval = $workval - ($thouval * 1000); // get rid of thousands
$tensval = (integer)($workval);
if ($moneystr == "")
  {
  if ($tensval > 0)
    {
    $moneystr = getwords($tensval);
    }
  else
    {
    $moneystr = "Zero";
    }
  }
else // non zero values in hundreds and up
  {
  $workword = getwords($tensval);
  $moneystr .= " " . $workword;
  }

// plural or singular 'dollar'
$workval = (integer)($numval);
if ($workval == 1)
  {
  $moneystr .= " Dollar And ";
  }
else
  {
  $moneystr .= " Dollars And ";
  }

// do the pennies - use printf so that we get the
// same rounding as printf
$workstr = sprintf("%3.2f",$numval); // convert to a string
$intstr = substr($workstr,strlen - 2, 2);
$workint = (integer)($intstr);
if ($workint == 0)
  {
  $moneystr .= "Zero";
  }
else
  {
  $moneystr .= getwords($workint);
  }
if ($workint == 1)
  {
  $moneystr .= " Cent";
  }
else
  {
  $moneystr .= " Cents";
  }

// done - let's get out of here!
return $moneystr;
}

//**********************************************
// this function creates word phrases in the range of 1 to 999.
// pass it an integer value
//**********************************************
function getwords($workval)
{
$numwords = array(
  1 => "One",
  2 => "Two",
  3 => "Three",
  4 => "Four",
  5 => "Five",
  6 => "Six",
  7 => "Seven",
  8 => "Eight",
  9 => "Nine",
  10 => "Ten",
  11 => "Eleven",
  12 => "Twelve",
  13 => "Thirteen",
  14 => "Fourteen",
  15 => "Fifteen",
  16 => "Sixteen",
  17 => "Seventeen",
  18 => "Eightteen",
  19 => "Nineteen",
  20 => "Twenty",
  30 => "Thirty",
  40 => "Forty",
  50 => "Fifty",
  60 => "Sixty",
  70 => "Seventy",
  80 => "Eighty",
  90 => "Ninety");

// handle the 100's
$retstr = "";
$hundval = (integer)($workval / 100);
if ($hundval > 0)
  {
  $retstr = $numwords[$hundval] . " Hundred";
  }

// handle units and teens
$workstr = "";
$tensval = $workval - ($hundval * 100); // dump the 100's
if (($tensval < 20) && ($tensval > 0))// do the teens
  {
  $workstr = $numwords[$tensval];
  }
else // got to break out the units and tens
  {
  $tempval = ((integer)($tensval / 10)) * 10; // dump the units
  $workstr = $numwords[$tempval]; // get the tens
  $unitval = $tensval - $tempval; // get the unit value
  if ($unitval > 0)
    {
    $workstr .= " " . $numwords[$unitval];
    }
  }

// join all the parts together and leave
if ($workstr != "")
  {
  if ($retstr != "")
    {
    $retstr .= " " . $workstr;
    }
  else
    {
    $retstr = $workstr;
    }
  }
return $retstr;
}

$floatval = 42341.55;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 0.63;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 1.00;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 0.01;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 76842341.55;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 0.00;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 11.04;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 456.78;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 76.97;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);

$floatval = 777777777.77;
$myresult = makewords($floatval);
echo "<br>$myresult<br>";
printf("The value is %0.2f<br>",$floatval);
?>

[madhavr]

hi mate

firslty this function is designed for the sole purpose of printing to hard copy rather than screen output so any talk of <BR> or CSS etc is out of the window. i am using phps printer functions (see manual for more info)

secondly let me explain things a bit more clearly to you ....

lets say i have a cheque amount for 150.00

if you got a cheque for this amount you would expect something as follows...

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS AND NO PENCE

----------------------------------------------------------------

the above is simple and clean no problems. note that the hyphened lines are the lines on a cheque where there is space for the worded amount to appear. note that in the above case a word limit of 8 will suffice to keep all in the one line.

now the problem becomes more clear if i was to say to you we now have a cheque for 3456.56

this is longer and slightly more complex to wordwrap if you will since we need to choose appropriate words to end the line and continue to the next line.

THREE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX POUNDS

AND FIFTY-SIX PENCE

note the above situation the word limit would have been set to 7 rather than 8 indeed what is occuring is that there seems to be a random changing in the word limit to keep things looking neat for instance you would not like the above to end at FIFTY-SIX this would be untidy and sso forth.

the requirement

i want a function that will take an amount in float form and then give me back an appropriate word limit based on the analysis of the presence of hundreds, thousands, tens, ones, pence.

i hope this has clarified things more.

thanks

[BeastRider]

The word wrap is trivial compared to creating the string from the float. The most obvious is to get a total word count, and do a string search for whatever term you want to create a line break. This is more art than coding... the coding is trivial. Just decide what lengths and what words go together to create a break.

PS: My function returns a string. You do with it whatever you want.

[madhavr]

thanks BeastRider I appreciate your input

but im still not sure what you mean by determine what words i need then initiate a line break.

i agree in that its not as complex as the currencytowords function this took me very long to do -- i only wish i had your input then it would have saved me yonks of work.

i am very suprised this currencytowords function did not exist in any codelibrarys i would seriously urge you to ubmit yours so that others can benefit from it.

[BeastRider]

You are going to have to make some decisions.

Assuming that you write checks for under a million, the longest possible string is

Seven Hundred Seventy Seven Thousand Seven Hundred
Seventy Seven Dollars and Seventy Seven Cents.

You can't get a longer string. This is 96 characters so you will not bust two lines under a million dollars.

As I have written it in two lines, the first line is 50 chars and the second is 45. You can't move 'hundred' to the next line.

So, where do you break it?

Personally, I think I'd count out to 50 characters, then backup until you are not in the middle of a word. That becomes your first line.

An easy way to do this is to tokenize the string (strtok). Keep dragging off words to put together into a new string until you get to max length.

The alternative is do to a lot of analysis of possible string lengths, then try to decide upon breakpoints nearer the "pounds" as you wanted.

PS: Maybe I shall tidy it up and submit it.

[thessoro]

maybe you should have said you already had the number_to_word function (as BeastRider would have saved a lot of time).

You have to separate the problem into several parts. Take a paper and write down as much possibilites as may occur... You must find a rule that matches in every cases.

1) Count the words of the string
if ($number_of_words > 8) { // under 8 words you never want to break a line. Then do the rest of the algorithm.

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX POUNDS

AND SEVENTY SEVEN PENCE

Has a line-break but because it has more than eight words.

2) The line break, <br> or whatever you want to call it must happen:
- Always before an "AND" word and not before printing less than 5 words.

These two rules agree the following cases:

from 0,00 to 99,99 (never line-break)
then, it fits the following:
145,55
one hundred and fourty five pounds
and fifty five pence
$word_count>8 (line-break) && there is a "and" further the sixth position

3545,05
three thousand five hundred and forty five pounds
and five pence (the same case as above)

3056
three thousand and fifty pounds and no pence (no break, as it has exactly 8 words)

3006,25
three thousand and six pounds
and twenty five pence

i think this matchs almost every case. Having these two rules the coding can't be very difficult. Post if you have any problem.

[madhavr]

how can i do something to set the break before the occurence of an 'AND' and not before printing less than 5 words?

could it be a case of simply counting words and AND that could be the solution to my problem?

im guessing i can use substr_count($wordamount, "AND"); to count the number of ANDs present.

thanks

[thessoro]

suppose you have the following:

<?
$sentence="three hundred and fifty six pounds and thirty pence";
$words=explode(" ",$sentence);
$counter=0;
while ($words[$counter]) {
     echo $words[$counter]." ";
     if ($counter>4 && $words[$counter+1]=="and") {
          // the code for line-break
     }
$counter++;
}
?>

[madhavr]

cheers i will give it a try and let you know what happens

[madhavr]

ok i am having problems....

you alrady know that i am not outputting to screen

the problem is just the output using the printer functions

take a look at what i have below....(please note that you should check out the manual for printer functions)

$string = "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT POUNDS AND FIFTY EIGHT PENCE";
$y = 5700;
$x =200;

$words=explode(" ",$string);
$counter=0;

while ($words[$counter]) {
$length = strlen($words[$counter]) * 50;
$x = $x+$length+20;
     echo $words[$counter]." ";
	printer_draw_text($handle, $words[$counter]." ", $x, $y);

 if ($counter>4 && $words[$counter+1]=="AND") {
      // the code for line-break
	  echo "<br>";
	  $y= $y +100;
	  $x = 200;
 } // end if 

$counter++;
} // end while

the above is having problems because the words come out, some merged together others not and so on.

the problem i am having really is just setting an appropriate x cordinate depending on the word. i assumed i could just set the coordinate by multiplying the number of chars in the word with an appropriate length for each charactor and then later add 20 for the space between words.

in addition i have done it so that the x coordinate resets if it starts a new line.

if possible can someone tell me how i can get everything on two lines and not let it flow on to three lines? please give code solutions if you can.

thanks very much

[thessoro]

first issue:

while ($words[$counter]) {
$length = strlen($words[$counter]) * 50;
echo $words[$counter]." ";
printer_draw_text($handle, $words[$counter]." ", $x, $y);
$x = $x+$length+20; // this line AFTER printing the current word!!

second:

if ($counter>4 && strlen($string)>8 && !$second && $words[$counter+1]=="AND") {
          echo "<br>";
          $y= $y +100;
          $x = 200;
          $second=true;
} // end if

know this solution is QUITE unsmart but MAY work, (i wish it works and you send me some valuable cheques to me)

[thessoro]

have you thought how useful, quick and smart is paying using a credit card? 😃 😃 😃 😃 😃

[madhavr]

thanks mate but your suggestion is somewhat useless to me as it does not work with phps printer functions !!!

im NOT using BR or CSS etc etc

look at my code above look up the printer functions in the manul

my problem is the x co-ordiante part in the above thing

i just want the above solution for the screen to work with printer functions then i will be very happy

let me make things easier for you to understand

assume i have the follwoing

ONE
HUNDRED
AND
TWENTY
POUNDS
AND
THIRTY
SEVEN
PENCE

i need to print out the appropriate words in a sentence and then go to the next line.

the problem with printer functions is that everything goees by x and y cordinates im not having issues with Y cordinate but rather with X coordinate as the position of each word is coming out as such that words are overlapping

[thessoro]

1) but... look at YOUR code, the <BR> has been written by you too. But it has nothing to do with the problem, i know, i've been following the thread...

2) look at MY code, i think i corrected your x-coordinate problem, i know it's an x-coordinate problem and not something else. Add the length of the word AFTER printing it! not BEFORE....

3) Make sure you use a fixed font as courier. If you don't, the "M" character may be wider than "i".

[BeastRider]

Quite frankly, I don't see enough in the way of functions to accurately drive the printer. You are drawing to a canvas of a device context... all windows. I think you are going to need to be able to do a getdevicecaps and a few other windows api calls so that you can do things like get the length of a word or string in printer pixels. See the win32api section of the php manual for making api calls. You can then get exactly what you need for the printer.

[madhavr]

thessoro,

thanks your solution made things better by fitting everything into two sentences. the words still appear mish mashed.

i dont know whther this is due to an increment of x or what.

courier is having some problems so i may use arial font instead. hopefully this is equal in width.

in the end i am starting to wonder whther the solution to this thing should avoid the use of an array since this way might avoid having problems with echoing words into each other and so forth?

[thessoro]

some more advises:

-debug your code by echoing the x value and seeing if it changes proportionally to the length of the word.
-Try several fonts, arial is definitely a non-fixed font... but it is not the worse i think.
-Try increasing the x value for each letter.
-Make some tests with your printer and a similar array to the one you had in the code, check exactly what the problem is, (the x, the font, the array)

Unfortunately, i can't test printer functions myself cause i'm not using windows and printer functions doesn't work on linux systems.

Good luck...
(I going to dream with flying cheques tonight, full of letters, pounds and pences.)
Please post your progress (if you have them)

[BeastRider]

Originally posted by madhavr
in the end i am starting to wonder whther the solution to this thing should avoid the use of an array since this way might avoid having problems with echoing words into each other and so forth?

By all means, I'd create one string for output, with spaces between words already inserted. Then you need only a single text draw and nothing can get overlaid.