Best Excel Tip Ever?
30 July 2024
One of the most common questions we are ever asked is how to translate a number into words, e.g.
You may even have encountered this problem for yourself. Microsoft suggests you write VBA code to create a user-defined function (let’s not assume they’d actually create a function!):
Option Explicit
'Main Function
Function SpellNumber(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Dollars, Cents, Temp
Dim DecimalPlace, Count
ReDim Place(9) As String
Place(2) = " Thousand "
Place(3) = " Million "
Place(4) = " Billion "
Place(5) = " Trillion "
' String representation of amount.
MyNumber = Trim(Str(MyNumber))
' Position of decimal place 0 if none.
DecimalPlace = InStr(MyNumber, ".")
' Convert cents and set MyNumber to dollar amount.
If DecimalPlace > 0 Then
Cents = GetTens(Left(Mid(MyNumber, DecimalPlace + 1) & _
"00", 2))
MyNumber = Trim(Left(MyNumber, DecimalPlace - 1))
End If
Count = 1
Do While MyNumber <> ""
Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 3))
If Temp <> "" Then Dollars = Temp & Place(Count) & Dollars
If Len(MyNumber) > 3 Then
MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 3)
Else
MyNumber = ""
End If
Count = Count + 1
Loop
Select Case Dollars
Case ""
Dollars = "No Dollars"
Case "One"
Dollars = "One Dollar"
Case Else
Dollars = Dollars & " Dollars"
End Select
Select Case Cents
Case ""
Cents = " and No Cents"
Case "One"
Cents = " and One Cent"
Case Else
Cents = " and " & Cents & " Cents"
End Select
SpellNumber = Dollars & Cents
End Function
' Converts a number from 100-999 into text
Function GetHundreds(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Result As String
If Val(MyNumber) = 0 Then Exit Function
MyNumber = Right("000" & MyNumber, 3)
' Convert the hundreds place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1)) & " Hundred "
End If
' Convert the tens and ones place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 2, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = Result & GetTens(Mid(MyNumber, 2))
Else
Result = Result & GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 3))
End If
GetHundreds = Result
End Function
' Converts a number from 10 to 99 into text.
Function GetTens(TensText)
Dim Result As String
Result = "" ' Null out the temporary function value.
If Val(Left(TensText, 1)) = 1 Then ' If value between 10-19...
Select Case Val(TensText)
Case 10: Result = "Ten"
Case 11: Result = "Eleven"
Case 12: Result = "Twelve"
Case 13: Result = "Thirteen"
Case 14: Result = "Fourteen"
Case 15: Result = "Fifteen"
Case 16: Result = "Sixteen"
Case 17: Result = "Seventeen"
Case 18: Result = "Eighteen"
Case 19: Result = "Nineteen"
Case Else
End Select
Else ' If value between 20-99...
Select Case Val(Left(TensText, 1))
Case 2: Result = "Twenty "
Case 3: Result = "Thirty "
Case 4: Result = "Forty "
Case 5: Result = "Fifty "
Case 6: Result = "Sixty "
Case 7: Result = "Seventy "
Case 8: Result = "Eighty "
Case 9: Result = "Ninety "
Case Else
End Select
Result = Result & GetDigit _
(Right(TensText, 1)) ' Retrieve ones place.
End If
GetTens = Result
End Function
' Converts a number from 1 to 9 into text.
Function GetDigit(Digit)
Select Case Val(Digit)
Case 1: GetDigit = "One"
Case 2: GetDigit = "Two"
Case 3: GetDigit = "Three"
Case 4: GetDigit = "Four"
Case 5: GetDigit = "Five"
Case 6: GetDigit = "Six"
Case 7: GetDigit = "Seven"
Case 8: GetDigit = "Eight"
Case 9: GetDigit = "Nine"
Case Else: GetDigit = ""
End Select
End Function
Yuck.
Others on the internet will suggest you can use a recursive LAMBDA function, let’s call it NUMBERTEXT, which can do something similar up to a given value, e.g.
=LAMBDA(num, LET(singleDigits, {"Zero","One","Two","Three","Four","Five","Six","Seven","Eight","Nine"}, teens, {"Ten","Eleven","Twelve","Thirteen","Fourteen","Fifteen","Sixteen","Seventeen","Eighteen","Nineteen"}, tens, {"","","Twenty","Thirty","Forty","Fifty","Sixty","Seventy","Eighty","Ninety"}, units, MOD(num, 10), tensPlace, MOD(INT(num / 10), 10), hundredsPlace, MOD(INT(num / 100), 10), thousandsPlace, MOD(INT(num / 1000), 1000), millionsPlace, INT(num / 1000000), words, IF(num < 10, INDEX(singleDigits, num + 1), IF(num < 20, INDEX(teens, num - 9), IF(num < 100, INDEX(tens, tensPlace + 1) & IF(units <> 0, "-" & INDEX(singleDigits, units + 1), ""), IF(num < 1000, INDEX(singleDigits, hundredsPlace + 1) & " Hundred" & IF(MOD(num, 100) <> 0, " " & NUMBERTEXT(MOD(num, 100)), ""), IF(num < 1000000, NUMBERTEXT(INT(num / 1000)) & " Thousand" & IF(MOD(num, 1000) <> 0, " " & NUMBERTEXT(MOD(num, 1000)), ""), IF(num < 10000000, NUMBERTEXT(millionsPlace) & " Million" & IF(MOD(num, 1000000) <> 0, " " & NUMBERTEXT(MOD(num, 1000000)), ""), "Number out of range")))))), words))
Nice.
I have something much simpler and mine even remembers adding words such as “and”:
Assuming the formula is in cell B2 (as above):
=SUBSTITUTE(TRANSLATE(BAHTTEXT(B2),"th","en")," baht","")
How cool is that?
BAHTTEXT is a truly random function in Excel that converts a number to Thai text and adds a suffix of "Baht". You can change the Baht format to a different style in the Excel desktop application by using Regional and Language Options (Windows Start menu, Control Panel). It employs the following syntax to operate:
BAHTTEXT(number)
The BAHTTEXT function has the following argument only:
- number: this is required and represents a number you want to convert to text, or a reference to a cell containing a number, or a formula that evaluates to a number.
So, I thought why not use the new TRANSLATE function to translate Thai to English (or any other language you wish)?
For those not familiar with this brand new function, suppose you have the following text in cell A1:
"Hello, World!"
and you want to translate it to Spanish. You can use the TRANSLATE function as follows:
=TRANSLATE(A1, "en", "es")
In this example, the source language is English (en) and the target language is Spanish (es). The translated text, "Hola mundo!" will be displayed in the cell where you entered the formula.
Alternatively, you may just type the text in, viz.
We can take this idea with BAHTTEXT:
Then, all you need to do is remove “baht” from the text at the end (I use the SUBSTITUTE function to do this).
Simple!
Word to the Wise
Before everyone starts cheering from the rooftops, there are some issues. Some numbers don’t seem to work (e.g. 10,014 and those with decimals) – but hey, it’s a start and greater minds will bulldoze these scenarios in time. Also, I should point out that TRANSLATE is not yet available in all versions of Excel. At the time of writing, this function is only available to Beta Channel users of Excel 365 running:
- Windows: Version 2407 (Build 16.0.17808.20000) or later
- Mac: 16.87 (Build 24062430) or later.
But it’s coming!!
