If a number is too large use an abbreviation

Question

I am creating a social site. And I want to show people things like their total amount of likes, followers and people they are following. The way it is now, it shows the total amount of likes, followers and following as a whole number and if it's too long it will go over other words on the page.

So how do I use abbreviations like: K(for thousands), m(millions) etc ? This is what I have now.

$stmt = $con->prepare('SELECT name, username, num_likes, profile_pic FROM users WHERE user_closed = "0" 
    ORDER BY num_likes DESC LIMIT 100');
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->store_result();
$stmt->bind_result($name, $username, $num_likes, $profile_pic);

function convert($num_likes)
{
    $num_likes = $number / 1000;
    return $num_likes . 'k';
}

This is how I show the result: <p> Total Likes: " . $num_likes ."</p>

I tried the following:

PHP Count round thousand to a K style count like facebook Share . . . Twitter Button ect

Shorten long numbers to K/M/B?

PHP Count round thousand to a K style count Facebook Share

@LawrenceCherone yeah I tried that but it still didn't help me — user4192325, Aug 28 '20 at 15:17
Probably a variable scope issue here, seeing you're using a function. — Funk Forty Niner, Aug 28 '20 at 15:19
You might want to use a switch or conditional statement... because if the number is 1 and you divide by 1000, it's probably not the result you're looking for. I imagine you might have a series of conditions so you know whether to apply division by 1000 or a million or whatever — devlin carnate, Aug 28 '20 at 15:19
@devlincarnate But I did something identical to this and it still didn't work for me. https://stackoverflow.com/a/16292397/4192325 — user4192325, Aug 28 '20 at 15:21
Pass the connection as an additional parameter in the function, see if that makes it go. — Funk Forty Niner, Aug 28 '20 at 15:22
@FunkFortyNiner Nope. I don't get any errors or warnings it just shows the whole number — user4192325, Aug 28 '20 at 15:23

Anton · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-28T15:28:01.397

3

First of all, your function:

function convert($num_likes)
{
    $num_likes = $number / 1000;
    return $num_likes . 'k';
}

will not work as expected, because it converts to the opposite way :) Here is updated version:

function convert($num_likes)
{
    $number = $num_likes / 1000;
    return $number . 'k';
}

Second point. You should use the function somewhere... for example your line (actually only a part of it):

<p> Total Likes: " . $num_likes ."</p>

must be:

<p> Total Likes: " . convert($num_likes) ."</p>

And finally, using this answer we can modify convert function to this:

function convert($n) {
    if ($n < 1000) {
        $n_format = number_format($n);
    } else if ($n < 1000000) {
        // Anything less than a million
        $n_format = number_format($n / 1000, 3) . 'k';
    } else if ($n < 1000000000) {
        // Anything less than a billion
        $n_format = number_format($n / 1000000, 3) . 'M';
    } else {
        // At least a billion
        $n_format = number_format($n / 1000000000, 3) . 'B';
    }
    return $n_format;
}

Now we can convert all numbers up to billions.

Playground: click.

edited Aug 28 '20 at 15:28

answered Aug 28 '20 at 15:24

Anton

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1

these are good pointers, but another pointer would be: the function itself is wrong. there is no conditional (what if $num_likes is 10?) and no rounding (1234 likes becomes 1.234k - not much better). – blahy Aug 28 '20 at 15:26
@blahy you are right. Added updated version of "convert" function. I just wanted to explain how we come to it. – Anton Aug 28 '20 at 15:33
1

I did it exactly like this: `function convert($num_likes) { if ($num_likes > 1000) { $number = $num_likes / 1000; return $number . 'k'; } else { return $num_likes; } }` – user4192325 Aug 28 '20 at 15:38
And then I showed it like this: `
Total Likes: " . convert($num_likes) ."
` – user4192325 Aug 28 '20 at 15:38

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 28 '20 at 15:28

Perhaps like this,

Use round() if you don't want large fractions.

<?php
function convert(int $number)
{
    if ($number >= 1E9) {
        return round($number / 1E9, 2).'b';
    } else if ($number >= 1E6) {
        return round($number / 1E6, 2).'m';
    } else if ($number >= 1E3) {
        return round($number / 1E3, 2).'k';
    }
    return $number;
}

echo convert(1000000000).PHP_EOL; // 1b
echo convert(1000000).PHP_EOL;    // 1m
echo convert(1200).PHP_EOL;       // 1.2k
echo convert(1234).PHP_EOL;       // 1.23k
echo convert(100).PHP_EOL;        // 100

https://3v4l.org/cc54H

If a number is too large use an abbreviation

2 Answers2