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JavaScript numbers to Words

I’m trying to convert numbers into english words, for example 1234 would become: “one thousand two hundred thirty four“.

My Tactic goes like this:

  • Separate the digits to three and put them on Array (finlOutPut), from right to left.

  • Convert each group (each cell in the finlOutPut array) of three digits to a word (this what the triConvert function does). If all the three digits are zero convert them to "dontAddBigSuffix"

  • From Right to left, add thousand, million, billion, etc. If the finlOutPut cell equals "dontAddBigSufix" (because it was only zeroes), don’t add the word and set the cell to " " (nothing).

It seems to work pretty well, but I’ve got some problems with numbers like 190000009, converted to: “one hundred ninety million“. Somehow it “forgets” the last numbers when there are a few zeros.

What did I do wrong? Where is the bug? Why does it not work perfectly?

JavaScript
JavaScript

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Answer

JavaScript is parsing the group of 3 numbers as an octal number when there’s a leading zero digit. When the group of three digits is all zeros, the result is the same whether the base is octal or decimal.

But when you give JavaScript ‘009’ (or ‘008’), that’s an invalid octal number, so you get zero back.

If you had gone through the whole set of numbers from 190,000,001 to 190,000,010 you’d hav seen JavaScript skip ‘…,008’ and ‘…,009’ but emit ‘eight’ for ‘…,010’. That’s the ‘Eureka!’ moment.

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Code also kept on adding commas after every non-zero group, so I played with it and found the right spot to add the comma.

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