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I have the following question: I would like to convert fractions like 1/2, 3/4 to spoken words in Java like "One half" or "Three quarters".

Is there any way(pseudocode) or utility in Java that produces that output receiving basically numbers

Something like:

getSpokenWords(numerator, denominator) returns "One half"

It would be very appreciated.

Peter O.
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tludmetal
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4 Answers4

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You can implement your logic simply by using if-else or switch very easily in your getSpokenWords(numerator, denominator) because you know better your expected inputs as denominator and numerator, as all the expected inputs by us might not be worthy & suitable for you. You can maintain HashMap<Integer, String> for denominator and numerator , Integer being value of denominator and numerator and String being their Alpha counterparts and can get() the values from it accordingly.

AnkeyNigam
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There is no standard library that I know of that does that, and as far as I know, you can't make a scalable solution for this.

One approach I'd recommend is to create arrays that essentially map the numbers to their word counterparts. For example,

String[] numerators = {"One", "Two", "Three", ... // etc., until you reach your desired limit
String[] denominators = {"whole", "hal", "third", ...

Your getSpokenWords(numerator, denominator) method can then concatenate these strings and add plural endings if needed. ("Half" is listed as "hal" because of its irregular plural form, so that you can concatenate "ves" or "f" as necessary)

Edit: If you want to be clever about it, you can even use loops, division, and modulo to separate higher numbers into their places values. 525600, for example, can be separated into 525 and 600, where you can get the text equivalent of 525 (five hundred twenty five) and append "thousand" to it. Of course, getting the string "five hundred twenty five" also requires separation in itself.

Aaron Ong
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http://www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0426.html

he did it with normal numbers you just need to edit it a little use his code for the nuberator and you will need a second one for the denominator to add ith or third or whatever.

  • The endings for ordinal numbers (denominators) are surprisingly regular once you get past the first twenty. Firsts for 1, seconds for 2, thirds for 3, fifths for 5, eighth for 8, -ths for the others. Should be easy to adapt the code you linked to ordinal numbers. – Edward Doolittle Jul 03 '15 at 21:15
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By far the easiest and more straightforward solution especially if you are only interested in a specific set of fractions and not something general is to use a hashtable. 

HashMap<String, String> hashmap = new HashMap<String, String>();  
hashmap.put("1/2", "One half");  
hashmap.put("3/4", "Three quarters");  etc

From there all you need to do is to convert the passed numbers to the string.
E.g. 

int numerator = 1;  
int denominator = 2;  
String fraction = numerator + "/" + denominator;  
String word = hashmap.get(fraction);

So basically: 

public String getSpokenWords(int numerator, int denominator) {  
    String fraction = numerator + "/" + denominator;  
    String word = hashmap.get(fraction);  
    return word == null? "": word;  
}

Just create a big hashmap with your cases

Cratylus
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