Converting a string of letters to a string of numbers in PHP

Question

Is there a PHP function to turn a string of letters into a string of numbers ?

For example:

<?php   
convert_letters_to_numbers('abc') => 123
convert_letters_to_numbers('wxyz') => 23242526

Answer 1

<?php
function convertletternums($str)
{
    $result = '';
    for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($str); $i++) {
        $result .= ord($str[$i]) - 96;
    }
    return $result;
}

This function takes 1 string as input and returns numbers as output.

To work, this function converts each character in the input string to a number using the ord function, which returns the ASCII value of a character. The ASCII value of a lowercase letter is its position in the alphabet (for example a = 97, b = 98, etc.), so subtracting 96 from this value gives us the desired result (a = 1, b = 2, etc.). The function combines the numerical values and returns the result as a single string.

Few examples of how this function can be used:

echo convertletternums('abc');  // Outputs: 123
echo convertletternums('wxyz'); // Outputs: 23242526
echo convertletternums('hello'); // Outputs: 8541215121215