feat: add function that converts chemical formula to hill notation

news/hill-notation.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+**Added:**
+
+* Function that converts a chemical formula to hill notation.
+
+**Changed:**
+
+* <news item>
+
+**Deprecated:**
+
+* <news item>
+
+**Removed:**
+
+* <news item>
+
+**Fixed:**
+
+* <news item>
+
+**Security:**
+
+* <news item>

src/diffpy/utils/tools.py

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import importlib.metadata
 import json
+import re
+from collections import defaultdict
 from copy import copy
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -214,6 +216,60 @@ def get_package_info(package_names, metadata=None):
     return metadata
 
 
+def _expand_formula(formula):
+    """Expands the formula if it contains parentheses with multipliers."""
+    while "(" in formula and ")" in formula:
+        formula = re.sub(
+            r"\(([A-Za-z0-9]+)\)(\d+)",
+            lambda m: m.group(1) * int(m.group(2)),
+            formula,
+        )
+    return formula
+
+
+def to_hill_notation(formula):
+    """Converts a chemical formula to Hill notation.
+
+    The process is the following:
+    1. Expand group elements, and parse the expanded formula
+       into a dictionary of elements and their counts.
+       e.g., "H2O" -> {"H": 2, "O": 1}.
+    2. Apply Hill notation:
+       - Carbon (C) comes first if present.
+       - Hydrogen (H) follows Carbon (C) if present,
+         but only if carbon is also present.
+       - All remaining elements are listed in alphabetical order.
+    3. Format the elements with their counts, omitting counts of 1.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    formula : str
+        The chemical formula of the material.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    str
+        The formula formatted in Hill notation,
+        with elements separated by spaces (e.g., "C6 H12 O6").
+    """
+    element_counts = defaultdict(int)
+    tokens = re.findall(r"([A-Z][a-z]*)(\d*)", _expand_formula(formula))
+    for element, count in tokens:
+        element_counts[element] += int(count) if count else 1
+
+    hill_parts = []
+    if "C" in element_counts:
+        c_count = element_counts.pop("C")
+        hill_parts.append(f"C{c_count if c_count > 1 else ''}")
+        if "H" in element_counts:
+            h_count = element_counts.pop("H")
+            hill_parts.append(f"H{h_count if h_count > 1 else ''}")
+    for element in sorted(element_counts):
+        count = element_counts[element]
+        hill_parts.append(f"{element}{count if count > 1 else ''}")
+    return " ".join(hill_parts)
+
+
 def get_density_from_cloud(sample_composition, mp_token=""):
     """Function to get material density from the MP or COD database.
 

tests/test_tools.py

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
     compute_mud,
     get_package_info,
     get_user_info,
+    to_hill_notation,
 )
 
 
@@ -270,6 +271,27 @@ def test_get_package_info(monkeypatch, inputs, expected):
     assert actual_metadata == expected
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "input_formula, expected",
+    [
+        # C1: Formulas with C and/or H
+        ("C", "C"),  # Only C
+        ("H", "H"),  # Only H
+        ("CO2", "C O2"),  # With C
+        ("C6H12O6", "C6 H12 O6"),  # With C and H
+        ("CH3COOH", "C2 H4 O2"),  # With C and H
+        ("NH3", "H3 N"),  # With H only
+        # C2: Formulas without C or H
+        ("O2", "O2"),  # Single element
+        ("FeCl3", "Cl3 Fe"),  # Compound
+        # C3: Parentheses Expansion
+        ("Mg(OH)2", "H2 Mg O2"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_to_hill_notation(input_formula, expected):
+    assert to_hill_notation(input_formula) == expected
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "inputs",
     [