Question

I need a function to parse a user inputs of numbers to doubles. I cannot do anything client side or change how the input comes in.

Input       | Desired Output
"9"         | 9
"9 3/4"     | 9.75
" 9  1/ 2 " | 9.5
"9 .25"     | 9.25
"9,000 1/3" | 9000.33
"1/4"       | .25

I saw this post, but it uses Python, I was just wondering if anybody knew any fancy C# ways of handling this before I spend time to write my own.

Answer 1

Here’s what I ended up using:

private double ParseDoubleFromString(string num)
{
    //removes multiple spces between characters, cammas, and leading/trailing whitespace
    num = Regex.Replace(num.Replace(",", ""), @"\s+", " ").Trim();
    double d = 0;
    int whole = 0;
    double numerator;
    double denominator;

    //is there a fraction?
    if (num.Contains("/"))
    {
        //is there a space?
        if (num.Contains(" "))
        {
            //seperate the integer and fraction
            int firstspace = num.IndexOf(" ");
            string fraction = num.Substring(firstspace, num.Length - firstspace);
            //set the integer
            whole = int.Parse(num.Substring(0, firstspace));
            //set the numerator and denominator
            numerator = double.Parse(fraction.Split("/".ToCharArray())[0]);
            denominator = double.Parse(fraction.Split("/".ToCharArray())[1]);
        }
        else
        {
            //set the numerator and denominator
            numerator = double.Parse(num.Split("/".ToCharArray())[0]);
            denominator = double.Parse(num.Split("/".ToCharArray())[1]);
        }

        //is it a valid fraction?
        if (denominator != 0)
        {
            d = whole + (numerator / denominator);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        //parse the whole thing
        d = double.Parse(num.Replace(" ", ""));
    }

    return d;
}