Algorithm to get the excel-like column name of a number

Question

I'm working on a script that generate some Excel documents and I need to convert a number into its column name equivalent. For example:

1 => A
2 => B
27 => AA
28 => AB
14558 => UMX

I have already written an algorithm to do so, but I'd like to know whether are simpler or faster ways to do it:

function numberToColumnName($number){
    $abc = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    $abc_len = strlen($abc);

    $result_len = 1; // how much characters the column's name will have
    $pow = 0;
    while( ( $pow += pow($abc_len, $result_len) ) < $number ){
        $result_len++;
    }

    $result = "";
    $next = false;
    // add each character to the result...
    for($i = 1; $i<=$result_len; $i++){
        $index = ($number % $abc_len) - 1; // calculate the module

        // sometimes the index should be decreased by 1
        if( $next || $next = false ){
            $index--;
        }

        // this is the point that will be calculated in the next iteration
        $number = floor($number / strlen($abc));

        // if the index is negative, convert it to positive
        if( $next = ($index < 0) ) {
            $index = $abc_len + $index;
        }

        $result = $abc[$index].$result; // concatenate the letter
    }
    return $result;
}

Do you know a better way to do it? Maybe something to keep it simpler? or a performance improvement?

Edit

ircmaxell's implementation works pretty fine. But, I'm going to add this nice short one:

function num2alpha($n)
{
    for($r = ""; $n >= 0; $n = intval($n / 26) - 1)
        $r = chr($n%26 + 0x41) . $r;
    return $r;
}

Answer 1

This will do to conversion (assuming integer arithmetic), but I agree with the other posters; just use base_convert

function numberToColumnName($number)
{
    $abc = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    $len = strlen($abc);

    $result = "";
    while ($number > 0) {
       $index  = $number % $len;
       $result = $abc[$index] . $result;
       $number = floor($number / $len);
    }

    return $result;
}

Answer 2

Here's a nice simple recursive function (Based on zero indexed numbers, meaning 0 == A, 1 == B, etc)...

function getNameFromNumber($num) {
    $numeric = $num % 26;
    $letter = chr(65 + $numeric);
    $num2 = intval($num / 26);
    if ($num2 > 0) {
        return getNameFromNumber($num2 - 1) . $letter;
    } else {
        return $letter;
    }
}

And if you want it one indexed (1 == A, etc):

function getNameFromNumber($num) {
    $numeric = ($num - 1) % 26;
    $letter = chr(65 + $numeric);
    $num2 = intval(($num - 1) / 26);
    if ($num2 > 0) {
        return getNameFromNumber($num2) . $letter;
    } else {
        return $letter;
    }
}

Tested with numbers from 0 to 10000...

Answer 3

<?php
function numberToColumnName($number){
    $abc = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    $abc_len = strlen($abc);

    $result = "";
    $tmp = $number;

    while($number > $abc_len) {
        $remainder = $number % $abc_len;
        $result = $abc[$remainder-1].$result;
        $number = floor($number / $abc_len);
    }
    return $abc[$number-1].$result;
}

echo numberToColumnName(1)."\n";
echo numberToColumnName(25)."\n";
echo numberToColumnName(26)."\n";
echo numberToColumnName(27)."\n";
echo numberToColumnName(28)."\n";
echo numberToColumnName(14558)."\n";
?>

Answer 4

Indexed for 1 -> A, 2 -> B, etc

function numToExcelAlpha($n) {
    $r = 'A';
    while ($n-- > 1) {
        $r++;
    }
    return $r;
}

Indexed for 0 -> A, 1 -> B, etc

function numToExcelAlpha($n) {
    $r = 'A';
    while ($n-- >= 1) {
        $r++;
    }
    return $r;
}

Takes advantage of the fact that PHP follows Perl's convention when dealing with arithmetic operations on character variables and not C's. Note that character variables can be incremented but not decremented.