help; how to make a 'health bar'

[Cruelty]

this isn't entirely programming-related, but i figure any good programmer can probably help me out here

i'm in the process of building my GUI/HUD in darkbasic, and i've run into a bit of a snag - i am trying to make a visible 'health bar' (doesn't actually represent health, but another element in the game) that pretty much just does what health bars do (fill, and drain in accordance to the health variables). unfortunately i am terrible with math, and i'm having a hard time trying to come up with a process/algorithm to translate these health variables into a visual health bar.

the health bar in question is 158 pixels wide, and i'm using darkbasic's primitive 'draw box' functions to represent it (to good effect, mind you), so what i need to achieve is a process that can get an accurate percentage of [current health] in relation to [max health], and somehow translate that further into a whole number between 0 and 158, 0 being 0% and 158 being 100%. :l

btw, just so i'm clear, it's not the syntax i'm having any trouble with. i'm efficient with darkbasic, i just dont know how to pull off these kinds of functions with basic math. i'm giving myself a huge headache trying to figure this one out, so if anyone can help in any way i'd appreciate it very much!

here's a mock-up of the meter in question, for whatever it's worth;

 

[Wichu]

Do you just want a formula for the width of the health bar? If so, try (currentHP*158)/totalHP. The percentage is similar; (currentHP*100)/totalHP (if you need it). Hope this helps!

 

[Cruelty]

thank you very much, kind sir! that's exactly what i needed. :}

 

[Zethus]

(CurrentHP / TotalHP) * 100.. to get percent of hp left

(50 / 200) * 100 = 25%

 

[Brewmeister]

In practice, Wichu's formula will always yield better results. Even though mathematically they are the same, depending on the language / interpreter, they could return different answers. CurrentHP & TotalHP are most likely integers. Unless you explicitly cast them as floating points, CurrentHP / TotalHP could return an integer, which would get rounded to either 0 or 1, yielding an result of 0% or 100% only.
Darkbasic might do automatic casting, but it's still a good practice to multiply first, then divide.

Be Well

 

[Cruelty]

you guys are awesome <3 ,the percentage problem was going to be my next question!

and DB does have a function to round numbers to whole numbers when dealing with integers, so it's all good. these formulas are working just wonderfully for me! :}

 

[darknesscloud]

But how would you calculate it out if you want it a specific width? Such as MMORPGS have a bar that stays the same size but goes down slower.

 

[Zethus]

But how would you calculate it out if you want it a specific width? Such as MMORPGS have a bar that stays the same size but goes down slower.

(CurrentHP * BarWidth) / TotalHP

to get how long the bar should be... the bar is probably going slower because it's short