This is a more general solution that will work for .25 (unity numerator) and .625 (non-unity numerator).

Add the fraction to itself repeatedly until it no longer has a decimal portion. If you keep adding .625 to itself you eventually get 5 after adding 8 times (remember to include the first .625 as one of the adds!).

Of course, with true irrationals this will put the computer in an infinite loop, so I guess you have discovered the first advantage of limited numeric precision <s>.

>What about .625. This is really 5/8, but the 1/.625 = 1.60. I can't find a way around this one. Any ideas?
>
>Thanks
>
>>Brian,
>>
>>Off the top of my head, I'd say 1 / .25 = 4, which is your denominator. Divide 1 by your decimal and you get the denominator x in the expression 1/x.
>>
>>For 2.25 (and other mixed numbers), use this approach:
>>1. Divide 1 by the decimal portion to get your denominator
>>2. multiply the denominator by the integer portion, add 1, that's your numerator.
>>
>>>Has anyone ever seen a routine that will take a decimal number, and output a string that is formatted as a fraction. For instance, send in .25, and it will return "1/4". Any help would be great.
>>>
>>>Thanks