Convert numbers to Thai text with the BAHTTEXT function (?)

Everybody knows that you can do amazing things with Excel, but who would imagine a function like BAHTTEXT? According to Microsoft, this function “Converts a number to Thai text and adds a suffix of Baht.” There are no functions that convert numbers to text in any other language, so why Microsoft chose to develop this function remains a mystery. I’m guessing that one of the developers did it to impress someone who speaks Thai…

Sadly, I don’t speak a word of Thai, so in order to determine whether or not the BAHTTEXT function is good enough to impress anyone, I checked the results in Google Translate. This is what I got:

EasyExcel_32_BAHTTEXT

This doesn’t make sense to me at all! I got the same result for 1 and 1000: “One thousand”. For 5 and 5000 I got almost the same result: “Five thousand only” and “Five thousand”. The results for 2 and 100 look correct, though.

So, who screwed up, Microsoft or Google? Please post a comment below if you can help me understand this!


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8 thoughts on “Convert numbers to Thai text with the BAHTTEXT function (?)

  1. Microsoft’s style is correct. For payment text style in Thai.

    1 = One Baht Only
    2 = Two Baht Only
    5 = Five Baht Only
    10 = Ten Baht Only
    100 = One Hundred Baht Only
    1000 = One Thousand Baht Only
    5000 = Five Thousand Baht Only

  2. The “only” (Thai ถ้วน) usage is standard for checks and legal documents, rare/stilted elsewhere. I can’t understand how Google Translate managed to get numbers wrong by a factor of 1,000 but now they’ve fixed that bug—and replaced it with a new one. Instead of “One thousand” you get “One of Baht weighted.” Like the pound sterling, the baht began as a measure of weight in silver. Unfortunately, the baht as a measure of weight now almost always refers to gold — one baht of gold being worth around 20,000 baht. Good one, Google!

  3. Uh… It been 2 years. You might know why or not.
    But “ถ้วน” at the end mean it not have dot
    but if it have it will be like 1.25
    will be One baht twenty five satang
    Satang is an old money in Thai
    100 satang is 1 baht
    but I’m just surprise to see this function is exist. But it useless for me now anyway.
    But nice find sir!

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