Perl: Converting an integer or float to currency

created by 2501

(idea) by 2501 (7.2 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Tue Jun 20 2000 at 0:09:58

This is a wonderful little Perl script which is very useful when dealing with monetary database output.

sub docurr($){
local($_)=shift;
$_=sprintf("%.2f",$_);
1 while s/(.*\d)(\d\d\d)/$1,$2/;
$_="\$".$_;
$_;
}

This code is a procedure which takes in one variable"$_" and makes it a float with 2 decimal places using sprintf. Next, The codelooks for an ending of 4 numbers and places a comma in the appropriate position. It continues working its way up the variable one character at a time adding commas when there is a pattern match. When no more pattern matches occur, we cat the results of our while loop with a dollar sign and return the resulting string.

syntax: $printme=&docurr($somenumber);

(idea) by neil (10.5 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) Tue Jun 20 2000 at 0:32:48

Of course, this code is very locale-specific. For one thing, what if the current locale uses `,' instead of `.' as the decimal separator? Then inserting commas as period separators is not a good idea. Also, what if the currency symbol is not `$'? Of course, C-style locales have their own problems; see, for example, the SECURITY section of the perllocale(1) manpage.

In addition, it loses accuracy. You don't always want to lose the ability to represent fractions of cents.

printable version
chaos

never store currency in a float	Why Perl sucks	$_	Perl
TheBooBooKitty confesses: my life as a teenage whore named Susan	Bikini or thong?	Java Financial Library	Terry Pratchett
Currency of the World	Somnophilia	Horseshoes of a Zephyr	June 20, 2000
database	code

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