Measured

Encapsulates measurements with their units. Provides easy conversion between units. Built in support for weight, length, and volume.

Lightweight and easily extensible to include other units and conversions. Conversions done with Rational for precision.

The adapter to integrate measured with Ruby on Rails is in a separate measured-rails gem.

Installation

Using bundler, add to the Gemfile:

gem 'measured'

Or stand alone:

$ gem install measured

Usage

Initialize a measurement:

Measured::Weight.new("12", "g")
> #<Measured::Weight: 12 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

Convert to return a new measurement:

Measured::Weight.new("12", "g").convert_to("kg")
> #<Measured::Weight: 0.012 #<Measured::Unit: kg (kilogram, kilograms) 1000/1 g>>

Agnostic to symbols/strings:

Measured::Weight.new(1, "kg") == Measured::Weight.new(1, :kg)
> true

Seamlessly handles aliases:

Measured::Weight.new(12, :oz) == Measured::Weight.new("12", :ounce)
> true

Raises on unknown units:

begin
  Measured::Weight.new(1, :stone)
rescue Measured::UnitError
  puts "Unknown unit"
end

Parse from string without having to split out the value and unit first:

Measured::Weight.parse("123 grams")
> #<Measured::Weight: 123 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

Parse can scrub extra whitespace and split number from unit:

Measured::Weight.parse(" 2kg ")
> #<Measured::Weight: 2 #<Measured::Unit: kg (kilogram, kilograms) 1000/1 g>>

Perform addition / subtraction against other units, all represented internally as Rational or BigDecimal:

Measured::Weight.new(1, :g) + Measured::Weight.new(2, :g)
> #<Measured::Weight: 3 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>
Measured::Weight.new("2.1", :g) - Measured::Weight.new(1, :g)
> #<Measured::Weight: 1.1 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

Multiplication and division by units is not supported, but the actual value can be scaled by a scalar:

Measured::Weight.new(10, :g).scale(0.5)
> #<Measured::Weight: 5 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>
Measured::Weight.new(2, :g).scale(3)
> #<Measured::Weight: 6 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

In cases of differing units, the left hand side takes precedence:

Measured::Weight.new(1000, :g) + Measured::Weight.new(1, :kg)
> #<Measured::Weight: 2000 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

Converts units only as needed for equality comparison:

> Measured::Weight.new(1000, :g) == Measured::Weight.new(1, :kg)
true

Extract the unit and the value:

weight = Measured::Weight.new("1.2", "grams")
weight.value
> #<BigDecimal:7fabf6c1d0a0,'0.12E1',18(18)>
weight.unit
> #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>

See all valid units:

Measured::Weight.unit_names
> ["g", "kg", "lb", "oz"]

Check if a unit is a valid unit or alias:

Measured::Weight.unit_or_alias?(:g)
> true
Measured::Weight.unit_or_alias?("gram")
> true
Measured::Weight.unit_or_alias?("stone")
> false

See all valid units with their aliases:

Measured::Weight.unit_names_with_aliases
> ["g", "gram", "grams", "kg", "kilogram", "kilograms", "lb", "lbs", "ounce", "ounces", "oz", "pound", "pounds"]

String formatting:

Measured::Weight.new("3.14", "grams").format("%.1<value>f %<unit>s")
> "3.1 g"

If no string is passed to the format method it defaults to "%.2<value>f %<unit>s".

If the unit isn't the standard SI unit, it will include a conversion string.

Measured::Weight.new("3.14", "kg").format
> "3.14 kg (1000/1 g)"
Measured::Weight.new("3.14", "kg").format(with_conversion_string: false)
> "3.14 kg"

Units and conversions

SI units support

There is support for SI units through the use of si_unit. Units declared through it will have automatic support for all SI prefixes:

Bundled unit conversion

• Measured::Weight
  • g, gram, grams, and all SI prefixes
  • t, metric_ton, metric_tons
  • slug, slugs
  • N, newtons, newton
  • long_ton, long_tons, weight_ton, weight_tons, 'W/T', imperial_ton, imperial_tons, displacement_ton, displacement_tons
  • short_ton, short_tons
  • lb, lbs, pound, pounds
  • oz, ounce, ounces
• Measured::Length
  • m, meter, metre, meters, metres, and all SI prefixes
  • in, inch, inches
  • ft, foot, feet
  • yd, yard, yards
  • mi, mile, miles
• Measured::Volume
  • l, liter, litre, liters, litres, and all SI prefixes
  • m3, cubic_meter, cubic_meters, cubic_metre, cubic_metres
  • ft3, cubic_foot, cubic_feet
  • in3, cubic_inch, cubic_inches
  • gal, imp_gal, imperial_gallon, imp_gals, imperial_gallons
  • us_gal, us_gallon, us_gals, us_gallons
  • qt, imp_qt, imperial_quart, imp_qts, imperial_quarts
  • us_qt, us_quart, us_quarts
  • pt, imp_pt, imperial_pint, imp_pts, imperial_pints
  • us_pt, us_pint, us_pints
  • oz, fl_oz, imp_fl_oz, imperial_fluid_ounce, imperial_fluid_ounces
  • us_oz, us_fl_oz, us_fluid_ounce, us_fluid_ounces

You can skip these and only define your own units by doing:

gem 'measured', require: 'measured/base'

Shortcut syntax

There is a shortcut initialization syntax for creating instances of measurement classes that can avoid the .new:

Measured::Weight(1, :g)
> #<Measured::Weight: 1 #<Measured::Unit: g (gram, grams)>>

Adding new units

Extending this library to support other units is simple. To add a new conversion, use Measured.build to define your base unit and conversion units:

Measured::Thing = Measured.build do
  unit :base_unit,           # Add a unit to the system
    aliases: [:bu]           # Allow it to be aliased to other names/symbols

  unit :another_unit,        # Add a second unit to the system
    aliases: [:au],          # All units allow aliases, as long as they are unique
    value: "1.5 bu"        # The conversion rate to another unit
end

All unit names are case sensitive.

Values for conversion units can be defined as a string with two tokens "number unit" or as an array with two elements. All values will be parsed as / coerced to Rational. Conversion paths don't have to be direct as a conversion table will be built for all possible conversions.

Namespaces

All units and classes are namespaced by default, but can be aliased in your application.

Weight = Measured::Weight
Length = Measured::Length
Volume = Measured::Volume

Alternatives

Existing alternatives which were considered:

Gem: ruby-units

• Pros
  • Accurate math and conversion factors.
  • Includes nearly every unit you could ask for.
• Cons
  • Opens up and modifies Array, Date, Fixnum, Math, Numeric, String, Time, and Object, then depends on those changes internally.
  • Lots of code to solve a relatively simple problem.
  • No ActiveRecord adapter.

Gem: quantified

• Pros
  • Lightweight.
• Cons
  • All math done with floats making it highly lossy.
  • All units assumed to be pluralized, meaning using unit abbreviations is not possible.
  • Not actively maintained.
  • No ActiveRecord adapter.

Gem: unitwise

• Pros
  • Well written.
  • Conversions done with Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM) so highly accurate and reliable.
• Cons
  • Lots of code. Good code, but lots of it.
  • Many modifications to core types.
  • ActiveRecord adapter exists but is written and maintained by a different person/org.
  • Not actively maintained.

Contributing

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/Shopify/measured/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

Authors

• Kevin McPhillips at Shopify
• Sai Warang at Shopify
• Gareth du Plooy at Shopify