Thread: C Program Roman Numerals to Numbers HELP!

Hi Guys,
I am very interested in C programming but unfortunately I'm not very smart and not very good at C programming either...

I'm quite new to this, so would really appreciate it if someone would help me with this.

So I have a fascination with Roman numerals and would like to create a C program that converts Roman numeral inputs to normal numbers.

I want to keep everything simple and only use the C library for the coding.

Can anybody give me some hints and help me with this?

Thanks

Chipped Dud

By the way, you don't really have to be super smart to get good at code. Though the idea probably protects a few egos or makes jobs more secure somewhere. All you have to be able to do is to plan well, and have a decent ability to visualize concepts.

Originally Posted by chipped_dud

So I have a fascination with Roman numerals and would like to create a C program that converts Roman numeral inputs to normal numbers.

It's easily done using modular and integer division.

First of all you need to understand how to convert decimal numbers into roman numerals.

For instance, 1986 in roman numerals is MCMLXXXVI

If you broke that down into thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones you'd get:

1000 + 900 + 80 + 6 or 1-thousand, 9-hundreds, 8-tens, and 6-ones

and if you convert each individually you'd end up with

M + CM + LXXX + VI

Note that 900 is not CCCCCCCCC nor is it DCCCC. A general rule for roman numerals is that no "digit" repeats more than three times and digits are in order of highest to lowest. When you have a lower digit in front of a higher digit, it subtracts. 400 becomes CD, 900 becomes CM, 4 becomes IV, 9 becomes IX, etc. 1990 would be MCMXC.

With those general rules in mind it should be a snap to use modular and integer division with perhaps case statements, using some cases with breaks, some without (drop-down).

Good luck.