• Download source - 40.7 KB

Introduction

In this article, I will talk about converting numbers to written words in English & Arabic (Tafqeet as pronounced in Arabic).

Background

I was in the middle of programming my project when I needed a code to convert a number to written text.

Our project is mulltilingual, so I needed two versions: one for English and one for Arabic.

I googled “Number to Text” or “Number to Word” and I found a lot of code to convert number to written words for English language and many of them worked fine.

I also found code to convert number to words for Arabic language, but unfortunately many of them didn’t work as expected!

So I have decided to go the long way to build a class to do the conversion to Arabic & also added English language support.

Here is a screen shot of a test project that uses the class:

Using the Code

I have to mention that I used code written by Justin Rogers from this link as a start: http://weblogs.asp.net/justin_rogers/articles/151757.aspx

This article contains code that does a good convert for a decimal value into its equivalent English words, but numbers from my application were actually money amounts, so I needed to add currency names to it (our project is also multinational, so I had to build the string dynamically from the country’s currency).

This was the easy part after I made a few small changes to Justin’s code to fulfill my English-Number-To-Words requirements.

Now comes the complicated part: converting numbers to written words in Arabic language!

Arabic language is very complicated, and when it comes to converting it to words, I think it is the most difficult language because it has so many rules that depend on the “number” state and the “counted” state.

For example:

The number one & two matches the counted in its feminine state, where the numbers from 3 to 10 are contrary to the counted, etc.

So I have used one method to determine a digit feminine status using its group level & Currency Name Feminine field status. Here is the method:

private string GetDigitFeminineStatus(int digit, int groupLevel)
{
    if (groupLevel == -1)
    { // if it is in the decimal part
        if (Currency.IsCurrencyPartNameFeminine)
            return arabicFeminineOnes[digit]; // use feminine field
        else
            return arabicOnes[digit];
    }
    else
        if (groupLevel == 0)
        { 
            if (Currency.IsCurrencyNameFeminine)
                return arabicFeminineOnes[digit];// use feminine field
            else
                return arabicOnes[digit];
        }
        else
            return arabicOnes[digit];
}

The whole convert process depends on dividing the number into Group Levels. Each group contains 3 digits & these levels are numbered as in this example:

Number: 987,654,321.345
345: Group Level -1
321: Group Level 0 
654: Group Level 1
987: Group Level 2 

This is accomplished by this code:

Byte group = 0;
while (tempNumber >= 1)
{
    // separate number into groups
    int numberToProcess = (int)(tempNumber % 1000);
    
    tempNumber = tempNumber / 1000;
    
    // convert group into its text
    string groupDescription = ProcessArabicGroup
	(numberToProcess, group, Math.Floor(tempNumber));
    
    group++;
}

Then we have to process each group & convert it to its text depending on its group level.

Inside the ProcesArabicGroup method, we check for the special case for 200 as it has its special rule in Arabic:

if (hundreds > 0)
{
     if (tens == 0 && hundreds == 2) // حالة المضاف
         retVal = String.Format("{0}", arabicAppendedTwos[0]);
     else //  الحالة العادية
         retVal = String.Format("{0}", arabicHundreds[hundreds]);
} 

Also the number 2 has another special rule which is discussed by this code:

if (tens == 2 && hundreds == 0 && groupLevel > 0)
{ // This is special case for number 2 when it comes alone in the group
    if (_intergerValue == 2000 || _intergerValue == 2000000 || 
	_intergerValue == 2000000000 || _intergerValue == 2000000000000 || 
	_intergerValue == 2000000000000000 || _intergerValue == 2000000000000000000)
        retVal = String.Format("{0}", arabicAppendedTwos[groupLevel]); // في حالة الاضافة
    else
        retVal = String.Format("{0}", arabicTwos[groupLevel]);//  في حالة الافراد
}

For group numbers over 20, it is considered as complicated of 2 digits so each one will get its own converted text.

int ones = tens % 10;
tens = (tens / 10) - 2; // 20's offset
 
if (ones > 0)
{
    if (retVal != String.Empty)
        retVal += " و ";
 
    // Get Feminine status for this digit
    retVal += GetDigitFeminineStatus(ones, groupLevel);
}
 
if (retVal != String.Empty)
    retVal += " و ";
 
// Get Tens text
retVal += arabicTens[tens];

Also Arabic language is sensitive to currency names which also depends on the number state so I had to add four different names for the same currency name to support all states. Their fields are used at the end of the method when constructing the final String:

if (_intergerValue != 0)
{ // here we add currency name depending on _intergerValue : 1 ,2 , 3--->10 , 11--->99
    int remaining100 = (int)(_intergerValue % 100);
    
    if (remaining100 == 0)
        formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic1CurrencyName;
    else
        if (remaining100 == 1)
            formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic1CurrencyName;
        else
            if (remaining100 == 2)
            {
                if (_intergerValue == 2)
                    formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic2CurrencyName;
                else
                    formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic1CurrencyName;
            }
            else
                if (remaining100 >= 3 && remaining100 <= 10)
                    formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic310CurrencyName;
                else
                    if (remaining100 >= 11 && remaining100 <= 99)
                        formattedNumber += Currency.Arabic1199CurrencyName;

I have created one class to simplify the process, it is called CurrencyInfo which contains the definition for Currency object. It has the following properties:

CurrencyID = 0;	Just ID
CurrencyCode = "SYP";	Its Code
IsCurrencyNameFeminine = true;	Is the currency name feminine or no?
EnglishCurrencyName = "Syrian Pound";	Like: one Syrian Pound
EnglishPluralCurrencyName = "Syrian Pounds";	Like: thirty four Syrian Pounds
EnglishCurrencyPartName = "Piaster";	For the decimal part
EnglishPluralCurrencyPartName = "Piasteres";	For the decimal part
Arabic1CurrencyName = "ليرة سورية";	For the number one in Arabic
Arabic2CurrencyName = "ليرتان سوريتان";	For the number two in Arabic
Arabic310CurrencyName = "ليرات سورية";	For numbers between 3 and 10 in Arabic
Arabic1199CurrencyName = "ليرة سورية";	For numbers above 11 in Arabic
Arabic1CurrencyPartName = "قرش";	For the decimal part in Arabic
Arabic2CurrencyPartName = "قرشان";	For the decimal part in Arabic
Arabic310CurrencyPartName = "قروش";	For the decimal part in Arabic
Arabic1199CurrencyPartName = "قرشاً";	For the decimal part in Arabic
PartPrecision = 2;	Part precision, like: 1 Syrian Pound = 100 Piasters ( 2 is number of Zeros)
IsCurrencyPartNameFeminine	Is the currency part name feminine or no?

As you can see from the table, it is very easy to setup any other currency by filling the specified fields.

Points of Interest

I hope this was helpful to you.

Please feel free to correct/suggest any modifications to the code.

History

• 27^th September, 2010: Initial post
• 9^th April, 2011: Fixed a small issue (noted by one member) in the solution attached to the article
• 5^th May, 2011: Added VB.NET equivalent code for the article