Print number as word if less than 10

Question

Consider this code:

sample(1:20, 1)

If the result happens to be less than or equal to 10, can I get R to print out the number as a word. For example, if the result of sample(1:20, 1) is 2, can I program R to print the result as two, if the result of sample(1:20, 1) is 10, can I program R to print the result as ten, if the result of sample(1:20, 1) is 13, can I program R to print the result as 13, and so on.

I am using knitrto convert R code to latex for my thesis. My rule is any number less than or equal to 10 should be printed as word.

does your thesis only contain integers, ie what do you want printed for `9.34`? — baptiste, Feb 09 '14 at 13:45

Sven Hohenstein · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-09T12:27:23.217

13

You can use the english package to transform numbers into English words:

set.seed(1)
s <- sample(1:20, 10)
# [1]  6  8 11 16  4 14 15  9 19  1

library(english)
ifelse(s > 10, s, as.character(english(s)))
# [1] "six"   "eight" "11"    "16"    "four"  "14"    "15"    "nine"  "19"    "one"

edited Feb 09 '14 at 12:27

answered Feb 09 '14 at 12:14

Sven Hohenstein

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This general approach is perfect. There are also a few alternatives to the `english` package available (`qdap` and `xfun` are two). Here are a couple examples of functions similar to `english()`: https://stackoverflow.com/a/46652277/5373794 – bschneidr Nov 08 '18 at 15:24

Konrad Rudolph · Answer 2 · 2014-02-09T11:53:39.370

Here’s essentially the same as Mark’s answer, but quite a bit more concise:

numbers = c('zero', 'one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five',
            'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine', 'ten')
readable = function (x) ifelse(x < 11, numbers[x + 1], x)

> readable(sample(1:20, 10))
 [1] "20"    "12"    "13"    "seven" "ten"   "11"    "17"    "eight" "16"    "18"

Although if you’re using knitr with LaTeX, this is arguably a task for LaTeX, not for R: R provides the raw data, LaTeX is in charge of formatting. I would probably just tell knitr to issue numbers wrapped inside a macro – \readable{42} – and then do the conversion with this macro (untested, and requires the package siunitx):

\newcommand*\readable[1]{%
  \ifcase#1 zero\or one\or two\or three\or four\or five\or
    six\or seven\or eight\or nine\or ten\else\num{#1}}

Mark Miller · Answer 3 · 2014-02-09T11:27:12.713

This is not elegant, but I think it will do what you want.

set.seed(1234)

x <- sample(1:20, 1)

my.data <- read.table(text='
  x    y
  0    zero
  1    one
  2    two
  3    three
  4    four
  5    five
  6    six
  7    seven
  8    eight
  9    nine
  10   ten
', header = TRUE)

if(x > 10) {y = x} else {y = my.data$y[x == my.data$x]}

data.frame(x, y)

  x     y
1 3 three

Here is a way to convert many numbers at once:

set.seed(1234)

x <- sample(1:20, 10)
x <- as.data.frame(x)

my.data <- read.table(text='
  x    y
  0    zero
  1    one
  2    two
  3    three
  4    four
  5    five
  6    six
  7    seven
  8    eight
  9    nine
  10   ten
', header = TRUE, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

y <- apply(x, 1, function(i) if(i > 10) {y = i} else {y = my.data$y[i == my.data$x]})

data.frame(x, y)

    x     y
1   3 three
2  12    12
3  11    11
4  18    18
5  14    14
6  10   ten
7   1   one
8   4  four
9   8 eight
10  6   six

Print number as word if less than 10

3 Answers3