I had to solve this same problem today for work. My solution is written in Elixir and uses recursion, but I explain the thinking in plain English.
Here are some example transformations:
0 -> "A", 1 -> "B", 2 -> "C", 3 -> "D", ..
25 -> "Z", 26 -> "AA", 27 -> "AB", ...
At first glance it might seem like a normal 26-base counting system
but unfortunately it is not so simple.
The "problem" becomes clear when you realize:
A = 0
AA = 26
This is at odds with a normal counting system, where "0" does not behave
as "1" when it is in a decimal place other than then unit.
To understand the algorithm, consider a simpler but equivalent base-2 system:
A = 0
B = 1
AA = 2
AB = 3
BA = 4
BB = 5
AAA = 6
In a normal binary counting system we can determine the "value" of decimal places by
taking increasing powers of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, 16) and the value of a binary number is
calculated by multiplying each digit by that digit place's value.
e.g. 10101 = 1 * (2 ^ 4) + 0 * (2 ^ 3) + 1 * (2 ^ 2) + 0 * (2 ^ 1) + 1 * (2 ^ 0) = 21
In our more complicated AB system, we can see by inspection that the decimal place values are:
1, 2, 6, 14, 30, 62
The pattern reveals itself to be (previous_unit_place_value + 1) * 2.
As such, to get the next lower unit place value, we divide by 2 and subtract 1.
This can be extended to a base-26 system. Simply divide by 26 and subtract 1.
Now a formula for transforming a normal base-10 number to special base-26 is apparent.
Say the input is x.
- Create an accumulator list
l.
- If x is less than 26, set
l = [x | l] and go to step 5. Otherwise, continue.
- Divide x by 2. The floored result is
d and the remainder is r.
- Push the remainder as head on an accumulator list. i.e.
l = [r | l]
- Go to step 2 with with (d - 1) as input, e.g.
x = d - 1
- Convert """ all elements of
l to their corresponding chars. 0 -> A, etc.
So, finally, here is my answer, written in Elixir:
defmodule BijectiveHexavigesimal do
def to_az_string(number, base \\ 26) do
number
|> to_list(base)
|> Enum.map(&to_char/1)
|> to_string()
end
def to_09_integer(string, base \\ 26) do
string
|> String.to_charlist()
|> Enum.reverse()
|> Enum.reduce({0, nil}, fn
char, {_total, nil} ->
{to_integer(char), 1}
char, {total, previous_place_value} ->
char_value = to_integer(char + 1)
place_value = previous_place_value * base
new_total = total + char_value * place_value
{new_total, place_value}
end)
|> elem(0)
end
def to_list(number, base, acc \\ []) do
if number < base do
[number | acc]
else
to_list(div(number, base) - 1, base, [rem(number, base) | acc])
end
end
defp to_char(x), do: x + 65
end
You use it simply as BijectiveHexavigesimal.to_az_string(420). It also accepts on optional "base" arg.
I know the OP asked about Javascript but I wanted to provide an Elixir solution for posterity.
