Element Symbol To Atomic/Z Number Converter

Made by Kai Weterings, 30/07/2023

I present to you a conversion that works both ways for Element Symbols (ex: H, He, Li, Be, etc... ) to Atomic/Z number (number of protons in nucleus).

Whilst performing a data sweep for benchmarking a Monte Carlo code about reactions of radiation-matter during an internship, I was faced with having to turn worded information from that data files into numerical values used as input for the simulation code. Specifying reaction channels led to needing to convert element symbols into their respective atomic numbers for use in the Monte Carlo code. This led to tediously having to spend time writing out all element symbols in order to be able to convert element symbol into its respective atomic number.

This monotonous task made me realise many more people probably have to deal with this, hence I thought to create a project with various formats of an element symbol to atomic number converter, and vice versa.

You will find 3 different types of converters;

• Script to run in a terminal command line, where the arguments act as the input to be converted (best for quick usage, bash scripting, etc...).
• Python executable file to be imported and called upon in another file (best for python scripting).
• A regular program which relies on user input whilst running (best for ease of use and being more user-friendly).

Below is a short description of how each file is intended to be used in its current state.

File 1: sym_to_Z_number_cmdline.py

This file is currently designed for the Linux terminal (Linux, WSL, etc...), where any amount of arguments will be converted. To receive an output please do the following;

$ ./sym_to_Z_number_cmdline.py 2 He Ge 76 14            #Leading to an output of 5 seperate answers (He 2 32 Os Si)

If any of the inputs/arguments aren't recognised (not an element symbol or atomic number), the code will return the unknown argument in this way;

$ Can't convert argument(s): xxxxx xxxxx                #xxxx being the unconvertable inputs

File 2: sym_to_Z_number_exec.py

Possibly the handiest of the 3, this file is meant to act as an importable file/script in your project folder for another python script. This code, like the rest, accepts as many arguments as you'd like. To call upon this script in your work, please do the following;

import sym_to_Z_number_exec
sym_to_Z_number_exec.convert(2, 'He', 'Ge', 76, 14)     #Convert is the definition which performs the conversion

The argument can of course also be a variable previously defined in the code.
I have made it so that if any arguments to not represent an element symbol or atomic number, the code will return the troubling inputs and quit with error code 1 (to prevent your work from continuing to run with faulty inputs).
Note: The end result of the script is a print() of the output. This should be changed to whatever is desired as an output.

File 3: sym_to_Z_number_run.py

The 3rd and final format of the converter is the generic program, which asks for user input upon being run. The program will take as many element symbols or atomic numbers to be converted at once, and will keep asking for more user input after each output. To terminate the program, the user simply has to type 'q' and enter to stop the code.
Feel free to try out this program to see what im talking about 😜!

Intricacies of the code

The code will manage to return the desired converted value regardless of any oddly formatted inputs or strings. If the input has spaces either-side of the symbol or number, or the inputs/arguments are spaced far apart (many spaces typed between them), the code still picks up what it needs and returns the correct output. If the atomic number is too large or negative (or 0), the code will negate these or quit all while making you aware of which inputs couldn't be converted. Even is the element symbol isn't capitalised in the right places, the code will still return the correct atomic number. As an example, File 1 would work as follows;

$ ./sym_to_Z_number_cmdline.py      v    hE     -32      23123   ijija234131
Can't convert argument(s): -32 23123 ijija234131
Output: 23 2

Final words

I hope whoever chooses to use my code is happy with it and is glad not to have to go through the soul draining task of copying down the entire periodic table 😆! I am here to save the day.
I am relatively new to using Git and this is one of my first projects, hence any feedback or push requests would be greatly appreciated.