Float as a Fraction

By Zevan | November 29, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. // print some floats as fractions
  2. printFraction(0.5);
  3. printFraction(0.75);
  4. printFraction(0.48);
  5.  
  6. // try something a little more complex
  7. var float:Number = 0.98765432;
  8. trace("\na more complex example:");
  9. printFraction(float);
  10. var frac:Array = asFraction(float);
  11. trace("double check it:");
  12. trace(frac[0] + "/" + frac[1] +" = " + frac[0] / frac[1]);
  13.  
  14. /* outputs:
  15. 0.5 = 1/2
  16. 0.75 = 3/4
  17. 0.48 = 12/25
  18.  
  19. a more complex example:
  20. 0.98765432 = 12345679/12500000
  21. double check it:
  22. 12345679/12500000 = 0.98765432
  23. */
  24.  
  25.  
  26. function printFraction(n:Number):void{
  27.     var frac:Array = asFraction(n);
  28.     trace(n + " = " + frac[0] + "/" + frac[1]);
  29. }
  30.  
  31. // takes any value less than one and returns an array
  32. // with the numerator at index 0 and the denominator at index 1
  33. function asFraction(num:Number):Array{
  34.     var decimalPlaces:int = num.toString().split(".")[1].length;
  35.     var denom:Number = Math.pow(10, decimalPlaces);
  36.     return reduceFraction(num * denom, denom);
  37. }
  38.  
  39. // divide the numerator and denominator by the GCF
  40. function reduceFraction(numerator:int, denominator:Number):Array{
  41.     // divide by the greatest common factor
  42.     var divisor:int = gcf(numerator, denominator);
  43.     if (divisor){
  44.         numerator /= divisor;
  45.         denominator /= divisor;
  46.     }
  47.     return [numerator, denominator];
  48. }
  49.                    
  50. // get the greatest common factor of two integers
  51. function gcf(a:int, b:int):int{
  52.     var remainder:int;
  53.     var factor:Number = 0;
  54.     var maxIter:int = 100;
  55.     var i:int = 0;
  56.     while (1){
  57.         if (b> a){
  58.            var swap:int = a;
  59.            a = b;
  60.            b = swap;
  61.         }
  62.         remainder = a % b;
  63.         a = b;
  64.         b = remainder
  65.         if (remainder == 0){
  66.             factor = a;
  67.             break;
  68.         }else if (remainder==1){
  69.             break;
  70.         }else if (i> maxIter){
  71.             trace("failed to calculate gcf");
  72.             break;
  73.         }
  74.         i++;
  75.     }
  76.     return factor;
  77. }

This snippet contains a few functions for calculating fractions based on float values. Writing this brought back some memories from grade school math.

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4 Comments

  1. makc3d
    Posted November 30, 2009 at 8:16 am | Permalink

    I tried that once too

  2. Zevan
    Posted November 30, 2009 at 10:41 am | Permalink

    @mack3d that looks good

  3. David
    Posted September 13, 2010 at 6:50 am | Permalink

    try
    printFraction(1/3);

  4. Zevan
    Posted November 22, 2010 at 4:09 pm | Permalink

    ha! do you have some kind of fix for that?

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