Roman Numeral in C

Welcome to the Roman Numeral in C page! Here, you'll find the source code for this program as well as a description of how the program works.

Current Solution

#include  <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int val[150];

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{
    if(argv[1]==NULL){
        printf("Usage: please provide a string of roman numerals");
        return 0;
    }
    if(strlen(argv[1])==0){
        printf("0");
        return 0;
    }
    
    int len=strlen(argv[1]);
    val['I']=1;
    val['V']=5;
    val['X']=10;
    val['L']=50;
    val['C']=100;
    val['D']=500;
    val['M']=1000;
    long long ans=0;
    
    for(int i=1;i<len;++i){
        if(!val[argv[1][i]]){
            printf("Error: invalid string of roman numerals");
            return 0;
        }
        if(val[argv[1][i]]>val[argv[1][i-1]])ans-=2*val[argv[1][i-1]];
        ans+=val[argv[1][i]];
    }
    if(!val[argv[1][0]]){
        printf("Error: invalid string of roman numerals");
        return 0;
    }
    printf("%lld",ans+val[argv[1][0]]);
}

Roman Numeral in C was written by:

• LezendarySandwich

This article was written by:

• Jeremy Grifski
• rzuckerm
• shubhragupta-code

If you see anything you'd like to change or update, please consider contributing.

How to Implement the Solution

Let's understand this code block by block in the order of execution.

Main Function

#include  <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int val[150];

In the first three lines, we are including header files using include directive to utilize some functions defined in header files later in the program. Here, Standard Input/Output header file(<stdio.h>) is called to use printf() function and <string.h> to use strlen() function. strlen() returns the length of string and printf() prints formatted string as output. We are also declaring a variable of length 150.

Now let's move on the main function.

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{
    ...
}

In C, we declare a function using general form:

return_type function_name(parameter){
  ...
}

So, we are declaring main function with return_type integer and argc and argv as parameters to access command line arguments. argc and argv are variables which main function will get when run in command-line. argc stores argument count while argv stores array of strings that are arguments. This should be kept in mind that all command-line arguments are stored as strings.

argv[0] represents first argument which always is equal to name of our program. If we type the following command in terminal:

./roman-numeral IV

Here, ./roman-numeral represents argv[0] and IV represents argv1.

Control Flow

if(argv[1]==NULL){
    printf("Usage: please provide a string of roman numerals");
    return 0;
}

First if condition checks if the argument provided is a null string or not. If so, it prints correct usage pattern and returns with exit code of 0.

if(strlen(argv[1])==0){
    printf("0");
    return 0;
}

Now, if length of the argument provided is 0, then it prints 0 and returns with value 0.

int len=strlen(argv[1]);
val['I']=1;
val['V']=5;
val['X']=10;
val['L']=50;
val['C']=100;
val['D']=500;
val['M']=1000;
long long ans=0;

This blocks initialize a integer variable with the length of string provided by the argument. It also initializes the array. Since, in C we directly do not have dictionaries, here we have utilised the power of ASCII values. "I" has an ASCII value of 73. So, at val[73] = 1. Remaining values also get assigned in the similar fashion. Next 'long long' datatype variable ans is initialized with value of 0.

for(int i=1;i<len;++i){
    if(!val[argv[1][i]]){
        printf("Error: invalid string of roman numerals");
        return 0;
    }
    if(val[argv[1][i]]>val[argv[1][i-1]])ans-=2*val[argv[1][i-1]];
    ans+=val[argv[1][i]];
}

Now, in this for loop, first if conditions check if the each letter in the alphabet is a Roman Numeral. If it is not, it prints Error and exits the main function with exit code 0. Else, it proceeds with the rest of the function. If a smaller value appears before a larger one, the smaller value is subtracted 2 times from the ans. Then, each value is added in the ans.

if(!val[argv[1][0]]){
    printf("Error: invalid string of roman numerals");
    return 0;
}
printf("%lld",ans+val[argv[1][0]]);

Since in the above for loop, we have not considered the value of argv[1][0], we check if it is correct Roman Numeral and prints error message if it is not. Lastly, we print ans + val[argv[1][0]] using the format specifier %lld for long long datatype.

How to Run the Solution

gcc -o roman-numeral roman-numeral.c
./roman-numeral

Another handy option is to compile and run using online C Compiler such as OnlineGDB, Repl