Convert digits into words with JavaScript

Question

I am making a code which converts the given amount into words, heres is what I have got after googling. But I think its a little lengthy code to achieve a simple task. Two R

Answer 1

"Deceptively simple task." – Potatoswatter

Indeed. There's many little devils hanging out in the details of this problem. It was very fun to solve tho.

EDIT: This update takes a much more compositional approach. Previously there was one big function which wrapped a couple other proprietary functions. Instead, this time we define generic reusable functions which could be used for many varieties of tasks. More about those after we take a look at numToWords itself …

// numToWords :: (Number a, String a) => a -> String
let numToWords = n => {
  let a = [
    '', 'one', 'two', 'three', 'four',
    'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine',
    'ten', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'thirteen', 'fourteen',
    'fifteen', 'sixteen', 'seventeen', 'eighteen', 'nineteen'
  ];
  let b = [
    '', '', 'twenty', 'thirty', 'forty',
    'fifty', 'sixty', 'seventy', 'eighty', 'ninety'
  ];
  let g = [
    '', 'thousand', 'million', 'billion', 'trillion', 'quadrillion',
    'quintillion', 'sextillion', 'septillion', 'octillion', 'nonillion'
  ];
  // this part is really nasty still
  // it might edit this again later to show how Monoids could fix this up
  let makeGroup = ([ones,tens,huns]) => {
    return [
      num(huns) === 0 ? '' : a[huns] + ' hundred ',
      num(ones) === 0 ? b[tens] : b[tens] && b[tens] + '-' || '',
      a[tens+ones] || a[ones]
    ].join('');
  };
  // "thousands" constructor; no real good names for this, i guess
  let thousand = (group,i) => group === '' ? group : `${group} ${g[i]}`;
  // execute !
  if (typeof n === 'number') return numToWords(String(n));
  if (n === '0')             return 'zero';
  return comp (chunk(3)) (reverse) (arr(n))
    .map(makeGroup)
    .map(thousand)
    .filter(comp(not)(isEmpty))
    .reverse()
    .join(' ');
};

Here are the dependencies:

You'll notice these require next to no documentation because their intents are immediately clear. chunk might be the only one that takes a moment to digest, but it's really not too bad. Plus the function name gives us a pretty good indication what it does, and it's probably a function we've encountered before.

const arr = x => Array.from(x);
const num = x => Number(x) || 0;
const str = x => String(x);
const isEmpty = xs => xs.length === 0;
const take = n => xs => xs.slice(0,n);
const drop = n => xs => xs.slice(n);
const reverse = xs => xs.slice(0).reverse();
const comp = f => g => x => f (g (x));
const not = x => !x;
const chunk = n => xs =>
  isEmpty(xs) ? [] : [take(n)(xs), ...chunk (n) (drop (n) (xs))];

"So these make it better?"

Look at how the code has cleaned up significantly

// NEW CODE (truncated)
return comp (chunk(3)) (reverse) (arr(n))
    .map(makeGroup)
    .map(thousand)
    .filter(comp(not)(isEmpty))
    .reverse()
    .join(' ');

// OLD CODE (truncated)
let grp = n => ('000' + n).substr(-3);
let rem = n => n.substr(0, n.length - 3);
let cons = xs => x => g => x ? [x, g && ' ' + g || '', ' ', xs].join('') : xs;
let iter = str => i => x => r => {
  if (x === '000' && r.length === 0) return str;
  return iter(cons(str)(fmt(x))(g[i]))
             (i+1)
             (grp(r))
             (rem(r));
};
return iter('')(0)(grp(String(n)))(rem(String(n)));

Most importantly, the utility functions we added in the new code can be used other places in your app. This means that, as a side effect of implementing numToWords in this way, we get the other functions for free. Bonus soda !

Some tests

console.log(numToWords(11009));
//=> eleven thousand nine

console.log(numToWords(10000001));
//=> ten million one 

console.log(numToWords(987));
//=> nine hundred eighty-seven

console.log(numToWords(1015));
//=> one thousand fifteen

console.log(numToWords(55111222333));
//=> fifty-five billion one hundred eleven million two hundred 
//   twenty-two thousand three hundred thirty-three

console.log(numToWords("999999999999999999999991"));
//=> nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion nine hundred ninety-nine
//   quintillion nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion nine hundred
//   ninety-nine trillion nine hundred ninety-nine billion nine
//   hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand
//   nine hundred ninety-one

console.log(numToWords(6000753512));
//=> six billion seven hundred fifty-three thousand five hundred
//   twelve 

Runnable demo

const arr = x => Array.from(x);
const num = x => Number(x) || 0;
const str = x => String(x);
const isEmpty = xs => xs.length === 0;
const take = n => xs => xs.slice(0,n);
const drop = n => xs => xs.slice(n);
const reverse = xs => xs.slice(0).reverse();
const comp = f => g => x => f (g (x));
const not = x => !x;
const chunk = n => xs =>
  isEmpty(xs) ? [] : [take(n)(xs), ...chunk (n) (drop (n) (xs))];

// numToWords :: (Number a, String a) => a -> String
let numToWords = n => {
  
  let a = [
    '', 'one', 'two', 'three', 'four',
    'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine',
    'ten', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'thirteen', 'fourteen',
    'fifteen', 'sixteen', 'seventeen', 'eighteen', 'nineteen'
  ];
  
  let b = [
    '', '', 'twenty', 'thirty', 'forty',
    'fifty', 'sixty', 'seventy', 'eighty', 'ninety'
  ];
  
  let g = [
    '', 'thousand', 'million', 'billion', 'trillion', 'quadrillion',
    'quintillion', 'sextillion', 'septillion', 'octillion', 'nonillion'
  ];
  
  // this part is really nasty still
  // it might edit this again later to show how Monoids could fix this up
  let makeGroup = ([ones,tens,huns]) => {
    return [
      num(huns) === 0 ? '' : a[huns] + ' hundred ',
      num(ones) === 0 ? b[tens] : b[tens] && b[tens] + '-' || '',
      a[tens+ones] || a[ones]
    ].join('');
  };
  
  let thousand = (group,i) => group === '' ? group : `${group} ${g[i]}`;
  
  if (typeof n === 'number')
    return numToWords(String(n));
  else if (n === '0')
    return 'zero';
  else
    return comp (chunk(3)) (reverse) (arr(n))
      .map(makeGroup)
      .map(thousand)
      .filter(comp(not)(isEmpty))
      .reverse()
      .join(' ');
};


console.log(numToWords(11009));
//=> eleven thousand nine

console.log(numToWords(10000001));
//=> ten million one 

console.log(numToWords(987));
//=> nine hundred eighty-seven

console.log(numToWords(1015));
//=> one thousand fifteen

console.log(numToWords(55111222333));
//=> fifty-five billion one hundred eleven million two hundred 
//   twenty-two thousand three hundred thirty-three

console.log(numToWords("999999999999999999999991"));
//=> nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion nine hundred ninety-nine
//   quintillion nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion nine hundred
//   ninety-nine trillion nine hundred ninety-nine billion nine
//   hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand
//   nine hundred ninety-one

console.log(numToWords(6000753512));
//=> six billion seven hundred fifty-three thousand five hundred
//   twelve

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You can transpile the code using babel.js if you want to see the ES5 variant