Formatting Post Numbers

[Monkuar]

 

 

16457 should be 16,457

 

 

 

1169 should be 1,169

 

 

would look way more professional IMO, what do you guys think?

[requinix]

Casting "16,457" to int gives 16.

[ManiacDan]

Eh, looks ok to me.  Once you start using thousands separators you run into internationalization issues and other stuff.  

[Philip]

Dan is correct. Once you start formatting it you run into internationalization issues (. vs ,).

 

The only place it bothers me at all is in the admin area, where we have stats and such and with larger numbers (in the millions.) That's a little hard to read, but nothing major.

[salathe]

I vote for hiding the numbers. 

[Christian F.]

Don't forget spaces, Philip: There are a few of us who're using them as thousands separators too.

 

Though, that said it's (should be) quite easy to add a selectable pattern for the number format, just like with the date. Depending upon how the actual code looks for the forum looks like, and if anyone has any time and desire to make it.

I know I don't.

 

As far as I care the post count could just be hidden in the profile or something, or not shown at all. The only thing I care about at all is the number of posts per day, and that's only for fun. Shame it disappeared in the forum switch, but...

[Philip]

Don't forget spaces, Philip: There are a few of us who're using them as thousands separators too.

WHYYYYYYYYYYY

[Christian F.]

Just to bug you.

 

*Christian runs.

[Philip]

Dumb question though, when do you know it is a new number?

 

E.g. 234 567 890 - how would you know that it is 2 numbers, 234 and 567,890 and not 234,567,890?

[ManiacDan]

234 and 567,890 and not 234,567,890? 

I believe you mean 567.890 and not 234.567.890

[Christian F.]

We use comma to separate numbers, as well as the word "eller" (same as "or" in English). Just like with any other list.

2 numbers: 123 eller 456 789
3 numbers: 123, 456 eller 789
2 numbers, with decimals: 12,3 eller 45 678,9
3 numbers, with decimals 1 000,4, 223 342,88 eller 1,2

See, perfectly logical. No?

[Philip]

The first 3 make sense, the last though... man... I'd likely make a lot of mistakes.

[fenway]

Just use underscores, like Perl.

[.josh]

how about we convert it to word representation?

 

8388607 posts = eight million three hundred eighty eight thousand six hundred seven.

[ManiacDan]

I dare you:

<?php 

//new and improved recursive version of my last attempt: 
function dec2english($number) 
{ 
    if ( !is_string($number) && !is_float($number) && !is_int($number) ) 
    { 
        return false; 
    } 

    if ( is_string($number) ) 
    { 
        //we know it's a string.  see if there's a negative: 
        if ( substr($number, 0, 1) == '-' ) 
        { 
            $number = substr($number, 1); 
            $number = $number * -1; 
        } 
    } 
    $number = strval($number); 

    if ( $number == '0' ) 
    { 
        return "Zero"; 
    } 
    $negative = $number < 0 ? "Negative" : ""; 

    $number = trim($number, '-'); 

    $split_by_decimal = explode(".", $number); 
    $decimal_string = ''; 
    if ( count($split_by_decimal) > 1 ) 
    { 
        $decimal_string = process_decimal($split_by_decimal[1]); 
    } 
    return trim(preg_replace("#\s+#", " ", $negative . " " . process_number($split_by_decimal[0]) . " " . $decimal_string)); 
} 

function process_number($number, $depth = 0) 
{ 
    $group_designators = array( 
        "", 
        "Thousand", 
        "Million", 
        "Billion", 
        "Trillion", 
        "Quadrillion", 
        "Quintillion", 
        "Sextillion", 
        "Septillion", 
        /*that's enough for now*/); 

    $numbers = 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'=>"Eighteen", 
        '19'=>"Nineteen", 
        '20'=>"Twenty", 
        '30'=>"Thirty", 
        '40'=>"Forty", 
        '50'=>"Fifty", 
        '60'=>"Sixty", 
        '70'=>"Seventy", 
        '80'=>"Eighty", 
        '90'=>"Ninety", 
        ); 

    //we already know that we have a numeric string.  Process it in groups of three characters 
    while ( strlen($number) > 0 ) 
    { 
        if ( strlen($number) <= 3 ) 
        { 
            $number_to_process = $number; 
            $number = ''; 
        } 
        else 
        { 
            $number_to_process = substr($number, strlen($number) - 3); 
            $number = substr($number, 0, strlen($number) - 3); 
        } 

        if ( strlen($number_to_process) == 3 ) 
        { 
            $output[] = $numbers[substr($number_to_process, 0, 1)]; 
            $output[] = "Hundred"; 
            $number_to_process = substr($number_to_process, 1); 
        } 

        if ( isset($numbers[$number_to_process]) ) 
        { 
            $output[] = $numbers[$number_to_process]; 
        } 
        else 
        { 
            //we're dealing with a number greater than 20 and not divisible by 10: 
            $tens = substr($number_to_process, 0, 1) . "0"; 
            $ones = substr($number_to_process, 1, 1); 
            $output[] = isset($numbers[$tens]) ? $numbers[$tens] : '';
            $output[] = $numbers[$ones]; 
        } 
        return process_number($number, $depth+1) . " " . implode(" ", $output) . " " . $group_designators[$depth]; 
    } 
} 

function process_decimal($number) 
{ 
    $suffix = array( 
        "Tenths", 
        "Hundreths", 
        "Thousandths", 
        "Ten Thousandths", 
        "Hundred Thousandths", 
        "Millionths", 
        //enough 
        ); 
    return " and " . process_number($number) . $suffix[strlen($number) - 1]; 
} 

echo dec2english("-19832498347.34") . "\n"; 
echo dec2english(14.12) . "\n"; 
echo dec2english(1432489723485) . "\n"; 
echo dec2english(10234.45645) . "\n"; 
echo dec2english(-10.2) . "\n"; 
echo dec2english("1298721498732.111111") . "\n";

[.josh]

well for starters, we could water that down, since post count should never be a negative number or have decimals. 

[Philip]

I don't think there is enough room for mine on the skin:

Eight million three hundred eighty eight thousand six hundred seven

[ManiacDan]

well for starters, we could water that down, since post count should never be a negative number or have decimals. 

I wrote that years ago, just copied and pasted it here. 

[Jessica]

I don't think there is enough room for mine on the skin:

It'll fit.

[Philip]

It'll fit.

 

[Jessica]

should't "eighty eight" read "eighty-eight"?

[.josh]

I wrote that years ago, just copied and pasted it here. 

yah i figured...didn't think you busted that out within minutes as a specific response!  Was just sayin' in general if we were to do it...

[Psycho]

I vote for converting to binary. The presentation display for that is the same for everyone, right?

[ManiacDan]

should't "eighty eight" read "eighty-eight"?

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, yes.  Lucky for you this script is open source.  Get to it.

[ignace]

I vote for converting to binary. The presentation display for that is the same for everyone, right?

 

echo base_convert($postCount, 10, 36);

 

For ultimate geekiness: if we use a custom BigInteger library we can even go as far as base-62.