The i18n Cookbook - recipies for a global society

Problem:

You want to convert a spelled out number to a Number.

Solution:

Parsing a formatted number in Java takes a new twist when the number is fully spelled out.   This can be easily accomplished thanks to the ICU4J library from IBM.  

To parse a spelled out number:

//Get a RuleBasedNumberFormat appropriate for French spellout

RuleBasedNumberFormat rbnf = new RuleBasedNumberFormat(ULocale.ENGLISH,RuleBasedNumberFormat.SPELLOUT);

//The String to parse

String number = "three hundred and forty-five";

//We need to handle the potential ParseException

try

{

    //Parse the number

    System.out.println(rbnf.parse(number));

}

catch (ParseException e)

{

    e.printStackTrace();

}

The output:
345

The same thing for a French Locale:

RuleBasedNumberFormat rbnf = new RuleBasedNumberFormat(ULocale.FRENCH,RuleBasedNumberFormat.SPELLOUT);

String number = "trois cents quarante-cinq";

try

{

    System.out.println(rbnf.parse(number));

}

catch (ParseException e)

{

    // TODO Auto-generated catch block

    e.printStackTrace();

}