NAME

Lingua::EN::Fractions - convert "3/4" into "three quarters", etc

SYNOPSIS

 use Lingua::EN::Fractions qw/ fraction2words /;

 my $fraction = '3/4';
 my $as_words = fraction2words($fraction);

Or using Number::Fraction:

 use Number::Fraction;

 my $fraction = Number::Fraction->new(2, 7);
 my $as_words = fraction2words($fraction);

DESCRIPTION

This module provides a function, fraction2words, which takes a string containing a fraction and returns the English phrase for that fraction. If no fraction was found in the input, then undef is returned.

For example

 fraction2words('1/2');    # "one half"
 fraction2words('3/4');    # "three quarters"
 fraction2words('5/17');   # "five seventeenths"
 fraction2words('5');      # undef
 fraction2words('-3/5');   # "minus three fifths"

You can also pass a whole number ahead of the fraction:

 fraction2words('1 1/2');  # "one and a half"
 fraction2words('-1 1/8'); # "minus one and an eighth"
 fraction2words('12 3/4'); # "twelve and three quarters"

Note that instead of "one and one half", you'll get back "one and a half".

Unicode fraction characters

As of version 0.05, certain Unicode characters are also supported. For example:

 fraction2words('½')        # "one half"
 fraction2words('1⅜')       # "one and three eighths"
 fraction2words('-1⅘')      # "minus one and four fifths"

You can also use the Unicode FRACTION SLASH, which is a different character from the regular slash:

 fraction2words('1/2')      # "one half"
 fraction2words('1⁄2')      # "one half"

As of version 0.06, you an also use the Unicode MINUS SIGN:

 fraction2words('−1/2')    # "minus one half"
 fraction2words('−⅘')      # "minus four fifths"

At the moment, the DIVISION SLASH character isn't handled. Feel free to tell me if you think I got that wrong.

Working with Number::Fraction

You can also pass in a fraction represented using Number::Fraction:

 $fraction = Number::Fraction->new(2, 7);
 $as_words = fraction2words($fraction);    # "two sevenths"

CAVEATS

At the moment, no attempt is made to simplify the fraction, so '5/2' will return "five halves" rather than "two and a half". Note though, that if you're using Number::Fraction, then it does normalise fractions, so "3/6" will become "1/2".

At the moment it's not very robust to weird inputs.

SEE ALSO

Lingua::EN::Numbers, Lingua::EN::Numbers::Ordinate, Lingua::EN::Numbers::Years - other modules for converting numbers into words.

Number::Fraction - a class for representing fractions and operations on them.

REPOSITORY

https://github.com/neilb/Lingua-EN-Fractions

AUTHOR

Neil Bowers <neilb@cpan.org>

This module was suggested by Sean Burke, who created the other Lingua::EN::* modules that I now maintain.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Neil Bowers <neilb@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

cpanm Lingua::EN::Fractions

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Lingua::EN::Fractions