Converting and Calculating Numbers (decimal & rounding)

[martinspire]

Hello. This is my first post here. I am not an expert developer but I generally manage to do what is asked of me. However, now and then I'm stumped, like now...

I have an online database system for our company in which staff can enter JOB related data, this includes 2 dimensions which they enter in millimetres (mm).

Here's an example

$dimension1 might be entered as 850
$dimension2 might be entered as 1447
$square_metres is the value I need to calculate.

Firstly, I need to round both dimensions up to the next 100mm so the 850 in this example would become 900 and the 1447 would become 1500.

Once I've done that, I need to calculate the square metres (900mm x 1500mm / 1000 was my first thought) but that raised the second thing; adding a decimal point in the result. 900 x 1500 / 1000 = 1350 but I need the result to be 1.350

I know my way around basic PHP code but I'm no expert by any stretch.

If anyone can help me understand how to get this calculation done I would be hugely appreciative.

Thank you

Martin

[NotSunfighter]

I believe I would convert the mm entrees to meters first then get the square meters.

$dimension1 = 850/1000;

$dimension2 = 1447/1000;

$square_metres = $dimension1 * $dimension2;

The results would be 1.22995 square meters. You can use number_format() if you need to limit the number of decimal places.

[ginerjm]

Your calculation produces 1350 which is square meters, but what 'unit' does 1.350 become?

[martinspire]

1 minute ago, ginerjm said:

Your calculation produces 1350 which is square meters, but what 'unit' does 1.350 become?

That will actually be 1.35 sq metres.

In order to calculate the price, I needed to get the entries from mm to a sq metre value.

Perhaps my original post was incorrect.

[ginerjm]

So then NotSunFighter had the right approach.  And using the number_format function would allow you to adjust the presentation.

[DavidAM]

7 hours ago, martinspire said:

Once I've done that, I need to calculate the square metres (900mm x 1500mm / 1000 was my first thought) but that raised the second thing; adding a decimal point in the result. 900 x 1500 / 1000 = 1350 but I need the result to be 1.350

Your math is off. There are 1,000 mm in a meter. But there are 1,000,000 square mm in a square meter. You should divide by 1,000,000 if you use the approach in your original post.

900mm * 1500mm / 1000000 = 1.35 sq meters

[ginerjm]

But NotSunFighter has already solved the math for us.

[Barand]

To round $x up to the nearest $y mm

$x = ceil($x / $y) * $y;

 

[DavidAM]

19 hours ago, ginerjm said:

But NotSunFighter has already solved the math for us.

I just thought it would be good to explain why the original calculation was not working.