Dart: how to convert a column letter into number - dart

Question

Currently using Dart with gsheets_api, which don't seem to have a function to convert column letters to numbers (column index)
As an example , this is what I use with AppScript (input: column letter, output: column index number):
function Column_Nu_to_Letter(column_nu)
{
var temp, letter = '';
while (column_nu > 0)
{
temp = (column_nu - 1) % 26;
letter = String.fromCharCode(temp + 65) + letter;
column_nu = (column_nu - temp - 1) / 26;
}
return letter;
};
This is the code I came up for Dart, it works, but I am sure there is a more elegant or correct way to do it.
String colLetter = 'L'; //Column 'L' as example
int c = "A".codeUnitAt(0);
int end = "Z".codeUnitAt(0);
int counter = 1;
while (c <= end) {
//print(String.fromCharCode(c));
if(colLetter == String.fromCharCode(c)){
print('Conversion $colLetter = $counter');
}
counter++;
c++;
}
// this output L = 12
Do you have any suggestions on how to improve this code?

Answer 1

First we need to agree on the meaning of the letters.
I believe the traditional approach is "A" is 1, "Z" is 26, "AA" is 27, "AZ" is 52, "BA" is 53, etc.
Then I'd probably go with something like these functions for converting:
int lettersToIndex(String letters) {
var result = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < letters.length; i++) {
result = result * 26 + (letters.codeUnitAt(i) & 0x1f);
}
return result;
}
String indexToLetters(int index) {
if (index <= 0) throw RangeError.range(index, 1, null, "index");
const _letters = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
if (index < 27) return _letters[index - 1];
var letters = <String>[];
do {
index -= 1;
letters.add(_letters[index.remainder(26)]);
index ~/= 26;
} while (index > 0);
return letters.reversed.join("");
}
The former function doesn't validate that the input only contains letters, but it works correctly for strings containing only letters (and it ignores case as a bonus).
The latter does check that the index is greater than zero.

Answer 2

A simplified version base on Irn's answer
int lettersToIndex(String letters) =>
letters.codeUnits.fold(0, (v, e) => v * 26 + (e & 0x1f));
String indexToLetters(int index) {
var letters = '';
do {
final r = index % 26;
letters = '${String.fromCharCode(64 + r)}$letters';
index = (index - r) ~/ 26;
} while (index > 0);
return letters;
}