An Excel conversion question 3

[jerry1423]

Does anybody know if it is possible to covert meters to feet-fractional inches in excel?
I could not find anything on this.

Thanks

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, you just have to write a function.

TTFN
faq731-376

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[fel3]

Jerry…

Over the past few months, I have posted a bunch of things to the PTC Mathcad boards, including a feet-inches-fractions calculator. Included in that particular post is an Excel spreadsheet to do F-I-F calculations. My spreadsheet does NOT include metric to F-I-F, but I think you should be able to use my spreadsheet as a way to shorten your task. You can find it here:

http://communities.ptc.com/docs/DOC-5190

Fred

==========
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[IDS]

The closest I can get using built in functions, without getting excessively complicated, is to use the Convert function, split the result into two cells, and format the inches cells as fractions. For a value in A1:
Feet, in B1: =INT(CONVERT($A1,"m","ft"))
Inches, in C1, format as fraction: =((CONVERT($A1,"m","ft")-B1)*12)

The problems with this are that you probably won't like the numbers they choose for the fraction, and the value is now split over two cells, so you can't use it as a value in further calculations.

A UDF should be pretty easy, I'll have a look.

Also for a general purpose unit converter, have a look at:

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/units-for-excel-5/

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[IDS]

Code for a UDF to convert metres to feet and fractional inches is listed below.
=m2ftin(10) returns 34' 5.39"
=m2ftin(10, 16) returns 34' 5 6/16"

Function M2Ftin(Mval As Double, Optional Denom As Long = 0, Optional InDP As Long = 2) As String
Dim ft As Double, inch1 As Double, inch2 As Double, Frac As Long, m2in As Double, Rtn As String
'Converts MVal to ft and inches, returning a string
'If Denom is > 0 then inches are returned as a fraction with the specified denominator
' If Denom is zero or blank inches are returned as a decimal with InDP decimal places, default 2
    m2in = 1000 / 25.4
    inch1 = Mval * m2in
    ft = Int(inch1 / 12)
    inch2 = inch1 - ft * 12
    ft = Int(inch1 / 12)
    If Denom > 0 Then
        Frac = Round((inch2 - Int(inch2)) * Denom, 0)
        inch2 = Int(inch2)
    Else
        inch2 = Round(inch2, InDP)
    End If
    Rtn = ft & "' " & inch2
    If Denom > 0 Then
        If Frac > 0 Then
            Rtn = Rtn & " " & Frac & "/" & Denom & """"
        Else
            Rtn = Rtn & """"
        End If
    Else
        Rtn = Rtn & """"
    End If
    M2Ftin = Rtn
End Function

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[IDS]

The results given above are actually for 10.5 m, not 10.0 m

Also the second "ft = Int(inch1 / 12)" in the code is redundant.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[IDS]

Here's another on-sheet method, from:

http://excel-formulas.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/display-feet-and-inches-as-5-8-12.html

If you have the dimension in feet in A2 then:
=INT(A2)&"' "&TEXT(12*(A2-INT(A2)),"# #/#")&CHAR(34)
will give feet and inches with fractions.

If you want to convert from m to feet and inches all in the one cell it would be (with metres in A1) :
=INT(CONVERT(A1,"m","ft"))&"' "&TEXT(12*(CONVERT(A1,"m","ft")-INT(CONVERT(A1,"m","ft"))),"# #/#")&CHAR(34)

If you have decimal inches as a value in a cell you can format it to display as eighths, sixteenths, etc, but I don't know how to do that in a text formula.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[jerry1423]

just got back to this thread after being gone for several days
Thank you very much for all the replies, incredibly helpful

 

[IDS]

Displaying the text formula with a specified denominator turns out to be pretty easy:
=INT(A2)&"' "&TEXT(12*(A2-INT(A2)),"# #/16")&CHAR(34)
see:

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/python-matrix-functions-with-excelpython-2/

for more details, and download of UDFs providing conversion in both directions, and unit conversion spreadsheet.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[IDS]

Sorry, link should be:

https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/feet-and-inches-and-other-units/

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/