C Exercises: Get the Excel column title that corresponds to a given column number

Last update on March 20 2025 12:35:39 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

8. Excel Column Title Variants

Write a C program to get the Excel column title that corresponds to a given column number (integer value).

For example:
1 -> A
2 -> B
3 -> C
...
26 -> Z
27 -> AA
28 -> AB
...

Example:
Input:
n = 3
n = 27
n = 151
Output:
Excel column title: C
Excel column title: AA
Excel column title: EU

Visual Presentation:

Sample Solution:

C Code:

#include <stdio.h>

// Function to convert a column number to an Excel column title
static char *convert_To_Excel_Title(int column_no) {
    if (column_no <= 0) {
        return ""; // Return an empty string for invalid column numbers
    }

    char *result = malloc(1024); // Allocate memory to store the Excel column title
    int len = 0;

    // Loop to convert column number to Excel column title
    do {
        result[len++] = ((column_no - 1) % 26) + 'A'; // Get the character corresponding to the column number
        column_no = (column_no - 1) / 26; // Update column number for the next iteration
    } while (column_no > 0);

    result[len] = '\0'; // Null-terminate the resulting string

    // Reverse the characters in the string to get the correct Excel column title
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0, j = len - 1; i < j; i++, j--) {
        char c = result[i];
        result[i] = result[j];
        result[j] = c;
    }
    return result; // Return the Excel column title string
}

// Main function to test the convert_To_Excel_Title function with different values
int main(void) {
    int n = 3;
    printf("\nColumn Number n = %d", n);
    printf("\nExcel column title: %s ", convert_To_Excel_Title(n)); // Display Excel column title for n
    n = 27;
    printf("\n\nColumn Number n = %d", n);
    printf("\nExcel column title: %s ", convert_To_Excel_Title(n)); // Display Excel column title for n
    n = 151;
    printf("\n\nColumn Number n = %d", n);
    printf("\nExcel column title: %s ", convert_To_Excel_Title(n)); // Display Excel column title for n
    return 0;
}

Sample Output:

Column Number n = 3
Excel column title: C 

Column Number n = 27
Excel column title: AA 

Column Number n = 151
Excel column title: EU 

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a C program to convert a given column number into its corresponding Excel column title using recursion.
• Write a C program to generate the Excel column title for large column numbers by simulating base-26 conversion.
• Write a C program to convert a column number to a title and then reverse the conversion to verify correctness.
• Write a C program to output Excel column titles for a range of numbers in a formatted table.

C Programming Code Editor:

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