Quickest way to convert a base 10 number to any base in .NET?

Question

I have and old(ish) C# method I wrote that takes a number and converts it to any base:

string ConvertToBase(int number, char[] baseChars);

Answer 1

I had a similar need, except I needed to do math on the "numbers" as well. I took some of the suggestions here and created a class that will do all this fun stuff. It allows for any unicode character to be used to represent a number and it works with decimals too.

This class is pretty easy to use. Just create a number as a type of New BaseNumber, set a few properties, and your off. The routines take care of switching between base 10 and base x automatically and the value you set is preserved in the base you set it in, so no accuracy is lost (until conversion that is, but even then precision loss should be very minimal since this routine uses Double and Long where ever possible).

I can't command on the speed of this routine. It is probably quite slow, so I'm not sure if it will suit the needs of the one who asked the question, but it certain is flexible, so hopefully someone else can use this.

For anyone else that may need this code for calculating the next column in Excel, I will include the looping code I used that leverages this class.

Public Class BaseNumber

    Private _CharacterArray As List(Of Char)

    Private _BaseXNumber As String
    Private _Base10Number As Double?

    Private NumberBaseLow As Integer
    Private NumberBaseHigh As Integer

    Private DecimalSeparator As Char = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.NumberFormat.NumberDecimalSeparator
    Private GroupSeparator As Char = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.NumberFormat.NumberGroupSeparator

    Public Sub UseCapsLetters()
        'http://unicodelookup.com
        TrySetBaseSet(65, 90)
    End Sub

    Public Function GetCharacterArray() As List(Of Char)
        Return _CharacterArray
    End Function

    Public Sub SetCharacterArray(CharacterArray As String)
        _CharacterArray = New List(Of Char)
        _CharacterArray.AddRange(CharacterArray.ToList)

        TrySetBaseSet(_CharacterArray)
    End Sub

    Public Sub SetCharacterArray(CharacterArray As List(Of Char))
        _CharacterArray = CharacterArray
        TrySetBaseSet(_CharacterArray)
    End Sub

    Public Sub SetNumber(Value As String)
        _BaseXNumber = Value
        _Base10Number = Nothing
    End Sub

    Public Sub SetNumber(Value As Double)
        _Base10Number = Value
        _BaseXNumber = Nothing
    End Sub

    Public Function GetBaseXNumber() As String
        If _BaseXNumber IsNot Nothing Then
            Return _BaseXNumber
        Else
            Return ToBaseString()
        End If
    End Function

    Public Function GetBase10Number() As Double
        If _Base10Number IsNot Nothing Then
            Return _Base10Number
        Else
            Return ToBase10()
        End If
    End Function

    Private Sub TrySetBaseSet(Values As List(Of Char))
        For Each value As Char In _BaseXNumber
            If Not Values.Contains(value) Then
                Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException("The string has a value, " & value & ", not contained in the selected 'base' set.")
                _CharacterArray.Clear()
                DetermineNumberBase()
            End If
        Next

        _CharacterArray = Values

    End Sub

    Private Sub TrySetBaseSet(LowValue As Integer, HighValue As Integer)

        Dim HighLow As KeyValuePair(Of Integer, Integer) = GetHighLow()

        If HighLow.Key < LowValue OrElse HighLow.Value > HighValue Then
            Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException("The string has a value not contained in the selected 'base' set.")
            _CharacterArray.Clear()
            DetermineNumberBase()
        End If

        NumberBaseLow = LowValue
        NumberBaseHigh = HighValue

    End Sub

    Private Function GetHighLow(Optional Values As List(Of Char) = Nothing) As KeyValuePair(Of Integer, Integer)
        If Values Is Nothing Then
            Values = _BaseXNumber.ToList
        End If

        Dim lowestValue As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(Values(0))
        Dim highestValue As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(Values(0))

        Dim currentValue As Integer

        For Each value As Char In Values

            If value <> DecimalSeparator AndAlso value <> GroupSeparator Then
                currentValue = Convert.ToInt32(value)
                If currentValue > highestValue Then
                    highestValue = currentValue
                End If
                If currentValue < lowestValue Then
                    currentValue = lowestValue
                End If
            End If
        Next

        Return New KeyValuePair(Of Integer, Integer)(lowestValue, highestValue)

    End Function

    Public Sub New(BaseXNumber As String)
        _BaseXNumber = BaseXNumber
        DetermineNumberBase()
    End Sub

    Public Sub New(BaseXNumber As String, NumberBase As Integer)
        Me.New(BaseXNumber, Convert.ToInt32("0"c), NumberBase)
    End Sub

    Public Sub New(BaseXNumber As String, NumberBaseLow As Integer, NumberBaseHigh As Integer)
        _BaseXNumber = BaseXNumber
        Me.NumberBaseLow = NumberBaseLow
        Me.NumberBaseHigh = NumberBaseHigh
    End Sub

    Public Sub New(Base10Number As Double)
        _Base10Number = Base10Number
    End Sub

    Private Sub DetermineNumberBase()
        Dim highestValue As Integer

        Dim currentValue As Integer

        For Each value As Char In _BaseXNumber

            currentValue = Convert.ToInt32(value)
            If currentValue > highestValue Then
                highestValue = currentValue
            End If
        Next

        NumberBaseHigh = highestValue
        NumberBaseLow = Convert.ToInt32("0"c) 'assume 0 is the lowest

    End Sub

    Private Function ToBaseString() As String
        Dim Base10Number As Double = _Base10Number

        Dim intPart As Long = Math.Truncate(Base10Number)
        Dim fracPart As Long = (Base10Number - intPart).ToString.Replace(DecimalSeparator, "")

        Dim intPartString As String = ConvertIntToString(intPart)
        Dim fracPartString As String = If(fracPart <> 0, DecimalSeparator & ConvertIntToString(fracPart), "")

        Return intPartString & fracPartString

    End Function

    Private Function ToBase10() As Double
        Dim intPartString As String = _BaseXNumber.Split(DecimalSeparator)(0).Replace(GroupSeparator, "")
        Dim fracPartString As String = If(_BaseXNumber.Contains(DecimalSeparator), _BaseXNumber.Split(DecimalSeparator)(1), "")

        Dim intPart As Long = ConvertStringToInt(intPartString)
        Dim fracPartNumerator As Long = ConvertStringToInt(fracPartString)
        Dim fracPartDenominator As Long = ConvertStringToInt(GetEncodedChar(1) & String.Join("", Enumerable.Repeat(GetEncodedChar(0), fracPartString.ToString.Length)))

        Return Convert.ToDouble(intPart + fracPartNumerator / fracPartDenominator)

    End Function

    Private Function ConvertIntToString(ValueToConvert As Long) As String
        Dim result As String = String.Empty
        Dim targetBase As Long = GetEncodingCharsLength()

        Do
            result = GetEncodedChar(ValueToConvert Mod targetBase) & result
            ValueToConvert = ValueToConvert \ targetBase
        Loop While ValueToConvert > 0

        Return result
    End Function

    Private Function ConvertStringToInt(ValueToConvert As String) As Long
        Dim result As Long
        Dim targetBase As Integer = GetEncodingCharsLength()
        Dim startBase As Integer = GetEncodingCharsStartBase()

        Dim value As Char
        For x As Integer = 0 To ValueToConvert.Length - 1
            value = ValueToConvert(x)
            result += GetDecodedChar(value) * Convert.ToInt32(Math.Pow(GetEncodingCharsLength, ValueToConvert.Length - (x + 1)))
        Next

        Return result

    End Function

    Private Function GetEncodedChar(index As Integer) As Char
        If _CharacterArray IsNot Nothing AndAlso _CharacterArray.Count > 0 Then
            Return _CharacterArray(index)
        Else
            Return Convert.ToChar(index + NumberBaseLow)
        End If
    End Function

    Private Function GetDecodedChar(character As Char) As Integer
        If _CharacterArray IsNot Nothing AndAlso _CharacterArray.Count > 0 Then
            Return _CharacterArray.IndexOf(character)
        Else
            Return Convert.ToInt32(character) - NumberBaseLow
        End If
    End Function

    Private Function GetEncodingCharsLength() As Integer
        If _CharacterArray IsNot Nothing AndAlso _CharacterArray.Count > 0 Then
            Return _CharacterArray.Count
        Else
            Return NumberBaseHigh - NumberBaseLow + 1
        End If
    End Function

    Private Function GetEncodingCharsStartBase() As Integer
        If _CharacterArray IsNot Nothing AndAlso _CharacterArray.Count > 0 Then
            Return GetHighLow.Key
        Else
            Return NumberBaseLow
        End If
    End Function
End Class

And now for the code to loop through Excel columns:

    Public Function GetColumnList(DataSheetID As String) As List(Of String)
        Dim workingColumn As New BaseNumber("A")
        workingColumn.SetCharacterArray("@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ")

        Dim listOfPopulatedColumns As New List(Of String)
        Dim countOfEmptyColumns As Integer

        Dim colHasData As Boolean
        Dim cellHasData As Boolean

        Do
            colHasData = True
            cellHasData = False
            For r As Integer = 1 To GetMaxRow(DataSheetID)
                cellHasData = cellHasData Or XLGetCellValue(DataSheetID, workingColumn.GetBaseXNumber & r) <> ""
            Next
            colHasData = colHasData And cellHasData

            'keep trying until we get 4 empty columns in a row
            If colHasData Then
                listOfPopulatedColumns.Add(workingColumn.GetBaseXNumber)
                countOfEmptyColumns = 0
            Else
                countOfEmptyColumns += 1
            End If

            'we are already starting with column A, so increment after we check column A
            Do
                workingColumn.SetNumber(workingColumn.GetBase10Number + 1)
            Loop Until Not workingColumn.GetBaseXNumber.Contains("@")

        Loop Until countOfEmptyColumns > 3

        Return listOfPopulatedColumns

    End Function

You'll note the important part of the Excel part is that 0 is identified by a @ in the re-based number. So I just filter out all the numbers that have an @ in them and I get the proper sequence (A, B, C, ..., Z, AA, AB, AC, ...).