BTW, best pic ever!

11 out of 1000 is actually 1.1%, but even that is an awkward percentage. So perhaps we should we convert percentages less than 2 to N out of 1000? For example: 1.2% would be 12 out of 1000.

@Olivier - Yep, I was wrong. Brian Rinaldi pinged me on IM to give me a math beatdown. (Reload the blog post to see new last comment.) I'll take _any_ interesting solution as an entry.

function causePanic( percent )
{
var data = StructNew();
data['statistic'] = RandRange( 0,100 ) & ' out of 100 people become zombies each year!';
data['message'] = 'Run for the hills! The Zombie invasion has begun!';
data['note'] = 'Lies, damned lies and statistics!'

return data;
}

That ought to do!

<cffunction name="outOfConvert" access="public" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="inPercent" type="numeric" required="true">
<cfset var outSTR = "">
<cfset var percent = arguments.inPercent/>
<cfset var outOf = 100/>

<cfloop condition="#percent# LESS THAN 1">
<cfset percent *= 10/>
<cfset outOf *= 10/>
</cfloop>
<cfset percent = round(percent)/>
<cfset outSTR = percent & " out of " & outOf/>
<cfreturn outSTR/>
</cffunction>

The zombie one is way better than mine. And it's an important safety tip!

OK, Total Cheat, but I combined the two entries above to get you "ZombieStats"

function zombiesStats(normalStat) {

var zombiesStat = "";
var humans = arguments.normalStat;
var Zombies = 100;

while (humans LT 1) {
humans *= 10;
Zombies *= 10;
}

humans = round(humans);
zombiesStat = humans & " OUT OF " & Zombies;

return zombiesStat;
}

Nice one @Kevin - LOL - I heart zombies. You've gotta check out that new show on Comedy Central about the zombies and demons - it's pretty good.

Here's my attempt

<cffunction name="percentToString" access="public" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="enteredPercent" type="numeric" required="true">
<cfargument name="TwentyFourHrNewsNetworkStatistics" type="boolean" required="false" default="false">

<cfset var length = 0>
<cfset var percent = 0>
<cfset var multiplier = 1>
<cfset var newnum = 0>

<cfif arguments.TwentyFourHrNewsNetworkStatistics>
<cfreturn RandRange(0,100) & " out of 100">
</cfif>

<cfif arguments.enteredPercent gte 1>
<cfset percent = arguments.enteredPercent / 100>
<cfset length = len(percent) - 2>
<cfelse>
<cfset percent = arguments.enteredPercent>
<cfset length = len(percent) - 1>
</cfif>

<cfloop from="#length#" to="1" step="-1" index="i">
<cfset multiplier = multiplier & 0>
</cfloop>

<cfset newnum = percent * multiplier>

<cfreturn newnum & " out of " & multiplier>

</cffunction>

So far, only two "real" submissions - chances are good for you guys. ;)

<cffunction name="percentString" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="percentIn" type="numeric">
<cfset var numDecPlaces = Len(ListLast(percentIn, "."))>
<cfset var outOf = 100>
<cfif FindNoCase(".", percentIn) lte 0>
<cfset numDecPlaces = 0>
</cfif>
<cfset outOf = outOf & RepeatString('0', numDecPLaces )>
<cfreturn ReplaceNoCase(percentIn, ".", "", "ALL") & " out of " & outOf>
</cffunction>
<cfoutput>
#percentString(1)#<br />
#percentString(.25)#<br />
#percentString(25)#<br />
#percentString(1.1)#<br />
#percentString(1000)#<br />
#percentString(100)#<br />

</cfoutput>

I don't have access to ColdFusion right now so I can't test to make sure there are no errors. But here are my thoughts...

<cffunction name="ConvertPercentToString" access="public" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="pct" type="numeric" required="true">

<!--- Create return variable --->
<cfset var s = "">

<!--- Convert percent to decimal --->
<cfset var dec = (pct / 100)>

<!--- Set defaults --->
<cfset var iNumDecimalPlaces = -1>
<cfset var iNumericValuePosition = -1>

<!--- Convert to string and remove leading "0." --->
<cfset dec = ToString(dec)>
<cfset dec = Replace(dec, "0.", "", "ALL")>

<!--- Loop over remaining digits of string so we can get count of decimal places and mark position of first non-zero digit --->
<cfloop from="1" to="#Len(dec)#" index="iNumDecimalPlaces">
<cfif (Int(Mid(dec, iNumDecimalPlaces, 1)) > 0) AND (iNumericValuePosition EQ -1)>
<cfset iNumericValuePosition = iNumDecimalPlaces>
</cfif>
</cfloop>

<!--- If non-zero digit found, then use it and number of decimal places to build string --->
<cfif (iNumericValuePosition GT -1)>
<cfset sNumericPortion = Right(dec, (Len(dec) - iNumericValuePosition))>
<cfset s = sNumericPortion & " out of " & (10 ^ (iNumDecimalPlaces - 1))>
</cfif>

<cfreturn s>

</cffunction>

I swear I didn't read Danny or Curt's entries before writing this. It's very similar, but I'm submitting it anyway since it converts 90% to 9 out of 10 instead of 90 out of 100, which seems more like how it would appear in a news report. Also, I have added more flattery, which ought to count for something

<cffunction name="NOutOf" output="false" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="percent" type="numeric" required="true">
<cfset var n = arguments.percent/100>
<cfset var outof = 1>
<cfloop condition="round(n) is not n">
<cfset n = n*10>
<cfset outof = outof*10>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn "#NumberFormat(n)# out of #NumberFormat(outof)# people think that Ray's blog is awesome.">
</cffunction>

My entry (changed your rules slightly to also allow 90% to be returned as "9 out of 10" - all those dentists can't be wrong!)
=====

<cffunction name="textPercent" access="public" output="false" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="percent" type="any" required="true"/>
<cfset var local = StructNew()>
<cfset local.rc = "Invalid percentage!">
<cfif isvalid('Numeric',arguments.percent)>
<cfset local.p = arguments.percent/10.0>
<cfset local.multiplier=10>
<cfloop index="local.i" from="1" to="4" step="1">
<cfif local.p eq int(local.p)><cfbreak></cfif>
<cfset local.p *= 10>
<cfset local.multiplier *= 10>
</cfloop>
<cfset local.rc = local.p & ' out of ' & local.multiplier>
</cfif>
<cfreturn local.rc />
</cffunction>

I've got no access to a ColdFusion box to test this (or even a CFML aware text editor). Hope this works:

<cffunction name="XOutOf" output="false" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="percentage" type="numeric" required="true" />

<cfset var factor = "1#RepeatString("0", Len(ListLast(arguments.percentage, "."))#" />

<cfreturn "#arguments.percentage * factor# out of #10 * factor#" />
</cffunction>

Just an FYI, going to make a random pick, I mean err a serious, hard choice at 4PM CST.

Guys - I apologize. I totally dropped the ball on this. Going to pick a winner tomorrow.

"That struct me as a bit odd..." A wee bit too much coldfusion vernacular? hehehe (some english beatdown for an english major? hehe)

Some results. I used this as a 'test harness':

<cfset tests = "1,2,3,0.1,0.11,0.5,1.5">

<cfset theFunc = x>

<cfloop index="t" list="#tests#">
<cfoutput>#t# = #thefunc(t)#<br/></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

where x was the udf to test.

@Danny - yours didn't seem to work for 0.1 or 0.11.

@Josh: for 0.1 it set 10 out of 100 - it got all the x.y ones wrong.

@Michael: Yours seems right, but, I'll ding it a bit for returning "01 out of 1000" and "011 ..." notice it left a trailing 0.

@Rick - I had to change one > to gt, but it had the same issue as Michael.

@David - ok, flattery aside, so far this is the best, and I like the it used numberformat.

@Bob - yours worked well as well.

@JonH: Ha to add one more )... it returned it wrong off by a factor of 10... but interesting example there!

So being that I'm 3 days late (sorry guys again!) I'm going with David! David, please ping me via email with your preferred email for the Amazon gift cert, and thanks everyone!

Ray, I was taking 0.1 to mean 10%. 10 out of 100 is 10%, although it should have returned 1 out of 10 at that point. Strangely enough, .1 will return 1 out of 10. I assumed anything under 1 was to be treated as the actual percentage, ie .25 = 25% and 5.6 = 5.6%.

Makes sense - I hope I didn't come off too critical - I was just trying to judge this quickly as I had been so late in it!

No, I just didn't want to have my intent misinterpreted.