Inspired by a programming interview question I heard about, here's some cute code I wrote for converting (positive) integers to words. It breaks the number into groups of three digits, converts each group into English, and intersperses words like million and billion where necessary. I did the three digit number conversion using a cascading pattern matching system.
I had never thought about this problem much and was surprised by how many little quirks there are.
import Data.List
suffixes = [ "" , "thousand" , "million" , "billion" , "trillion" , "quadrillion" ]
toDigits :: Int -> [ Int ]
toDigits 0 = []
toDigits x = toDigits ( x ` div ` 10 ) ++ [ x ` mod ` 10 ]
( +++ ) :: String -> String -> String
"" +++ "" = ""
a +++ "" = a
"" +++ a = a
a +++ b = a ++ " " ++ b
digitGroups :: Int -> [( Int , Int , Int )]
digitGroups n = digitGroups' $ reverse $ toDigits $ n
digitGroups' :: [ Int ] -> [( Int , Int , Int )]
digitGroups' ( a : b : c : ds ) = ( c , b , a ) : ( digitGroups' ds )
digitGroups' ( a : b : [] ) = ( 0 , b , a ) : []
digitGroups' ( a : [] ) = ( 0 , 0 , a ) : []
digitGroups' [] = []
groupToWords :: ( Int , Int , Int ) -> String -> String
groupToWords digits suffix = ( toWords3 digits ) +++ suffix
toWords :: Int -> String
toWords 0 = "zero"
toWords n = foldl ( +++ ) "" ( reverse ( zipWith groupToWords ( digitGroups n ) suffixes ))
toWords3 :: ( Int , Int , Int ) -> String
toWords3 ( 0 , a , b ) = toWords2 ( a , b )
toWords3 ( a , b , c ) = ( toWords1 a ) +++ "hundred" +++ ( toWords2 ( b , c ))
toWords2 :: ( Int , Int ) -> String
toWords2 ( 0 , a ) = toWords1 a
toWords2 ( 1 , 0 ) = "ten"
toWords2 ( 1 , 1 ) = "eleven"
toWords2 ( 1 , 2 ) = "twelve"
toWords2 ( 1 , 3 ) = "thirteen"
toWords2 ( 1 , 5 ) = "fifteen"
toWords2 ( 1 , 8 ) = "eighteen"
toWords2 ( 1 , a ) = ( toWords1 a ) ++ "teen"
toWords2 ( 2 , a ) = "twenty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 3 , a ) = "thirty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 4 , a ) = "forty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 5 , a ) = "fifty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 6 , a ) = "sixty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 7 , a ) = "seventy" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 8 , a ) = "eighty" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords2 ( 9 , a ) = "ninety" +++ ( toWords1 a )
toWords1 :: Int -> String
toWords1 0 = ""
toWords1 1 = "one"
toWords1 2 = "two"
toWords1 3 = "three"
toWords1 4 = "four"
toWords1 5 = "five"
toWords1 6 = "six"
toWords1 7 = "seven"
toWords1 8 = "eight"
toWords1 9 = "nine"