Published August 17, 2018 © GPL3+

Roman Numeral Converter for Arduino

An easy software solution that can be implemented into bigger projects.

BeginnerFull instructions provided12 minutes3,468

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

I was considering recently to implement a dynamic part for my ESP8266 web server password. Roman numerals seemed like a nice idea since I only need to know the current time for that part of the password. After some research into this topic, I have not found any example online that worked for me. I tried to find Java example for a converter, and there is a very nice, elegant solution for that. After trying to replicate its logic, I have made a working code that converts Roman numerals to Arabic numbers and back. I hope you find it helpful.

The input string is evaluated to verify if it has numeric value or not:

boolean isValidNumber(String str) {
  if (str.length() == 0) return false;
  for (byte i = 0; i < str.length(); i++)
  {
      if (!isDigit(str.charAt(i))) return false;
  }
  return true;
}

Based on the value of the string, the appropriate function is called:

if (isValidNumber(input)) {
       Serial.print(" converted to Roman numerals is: ");
       Serial.println(toRoman(input.toInt()));
   } else {
       Serial.print(" converted to Arabic numbers is: ");
       Serial.println(toArabic(input));
   }

Both functions are working on the same principle. The input string is compared with all values from multidimensional array.

const String numberMatrix[14][2] = {
   {"1000", "M"},
   {"900", "CM"},
   {"500", "D"},
   {"400", "CD"},
   {"100", "C"},
   {"90", "XC"},
   {"50", "L"},
   {"40", "XL"},
   {"10", "X"},
   {"9", "IX"},
   {"5", "V"},
   {"4", "IV"},
   {"1", "I"},
   {"0", ""}
};

Every found value is removed from the input string and the result is added to the output.

If not needed, either to Arabic or to Roman functions can be removed with their number matrix and floor functions since both parts are independent.

Java code that helped me write this code is attached to this project.

/*
    Roman numerals converter

    This sketch is converting Roman numerals to Arabic numbers and back.
    It is made by following the logic of Java example I found online.

    Created 15 August 2018
    By Dusan Lesan
*/

String input = "1884";
//String input = "MDCCCLXXXIV";

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(9600);
    Serial.print(input);
    if (isValidNumber(input)) {
        Serial.print(" converted to Roman numerals is: ");
        Serial.println(toRoman(input.toInt()));
    } else {
        Serial.print(" converted to Arabic numbers is: ");
        Serial.println(toArabic(input));
    }
}

void loop() {}

boolean isValidNumber(String str) {
   if (str.length() == 0) return false;
   for (byte i = 0; i < str.length(); i++)
   {
       if (!isDigit(str.charAt(i))) return false;
   }
   return true;
}

const String numberMatrix[14][2] = {
    {"1000", "M"},
    {"900", "CM"},
    {"500", "D"},
    {"400", "CD"},
    {"100", "C"},
    {"90", "XC"},
    {"50", "L"},
    {"40", "XL"},
    {"10", "X"},
    {"9", "IX"},
    {"5", "V"},
    {"4", "IV"},
    {"1", "I"},
    {"0", ""}
};

String toRoman(int number) {
    int index = 0;
    String output = "";
    while (floor(number) < 13) {
        index = floor(number);
        output += numberMatrix[index][1];
        number -= numberMatrix[index][0].toInt();
    }
    return output;
}

int floor(int number) {
    int index = 0;
    for (index; index < 14; index++) {
        if (numberMatrix[index][0].toInt() <= number) {
            return index;
        }
    }
    return index;
}

const String reversedNumberMatrix[14][2] = {
    {"900", "CM"},
    {"1000", "M"},
    {"400", "CD"},
    {"500", "D"},
    {"90", "XC"},
    {"100", "C"},
    {"40", "XL"},
    {"50", "L"},
    {"9", "IX"},
    {"10", "X"},
    {"4", "IV"},
    {"5", "V"},
    {"1", "I"},
    {"0", ""}
};

int toArabic(String romanNumber) {
    int index = 0;
    int output = 0;
    while (floor(romanNumber) < 13) {
        index = floor(romanNumber);
        output += reversedNumberMatrix[index][0].toInt();
        romanNumber.remove(romanNumber.indexOf(reversedNumberMatrix[index][1]), reversedNumberMatrix[index][1].length());
    }
    return output;
}
int floor(String number) {
    int index = 0;
    for (index; index < 14; index++) {
        if (number.indexOf(reversedNumberMatrix[index][1]) != -1) {
            return index;
        }
    }
    return index;
}

import java.util.TreeMap;

public class RomanNumeralsConverter {

	private final static TreeMap<Integer, String> map = new TreeMap<Integer, String>();

	static {
		map.put(1000, "M");
		map.put(900, "CM");
		map.put(500, "D");
		map.put(400, "CD");
		map.put(100, "C");
		map.put(90, "XC");
		map.put(50, "L");
		map.put(40, "XL");
		map.put(10, "X");
		map.put(9, "IX");
		map.put(5, "V");
		map.put(4, "IV");
		map.put(1, "I");
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		System.out.println(toRoman(5884));
	}

	public final static String toRoman(int number) {

		int l =  map.floorKey(number);
		if ( number == l ) {
			return map.get(number);
		}
		return map.get(l) + toRoman(number-l);
	}
}

Roman Numeral Converter for Arduino

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Code

Roman numerals converter

Java code example

Credits

Alfodr

Comments

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Roman Numeral Converter for Arduino

Roman Numeral Converter for Arduino

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Code

Roman numerals converter

Java code example

Credits

Alfodr

Comments

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