The i18n Cookbook - recipies for a global society

Problem:

You want to format and parse localized currency values.

Solution:

Currency formatting at its most basic is straight forward in Java programming.  Simply retrieve a currency instance of the NumberFormat class and format your number.

To format a currency for Japanese for Japan:

//Get a locale.
Locale ja = new Locale("ja","JP");
//Get a currency instance
NumberFormat nf = NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(ja);
//format and output.  Notice the rounding is limited to two place on the output.  This is
//Governed by the currency
String f = nf.format(123456.789);
System.out.println(f);

//Parse the value.  We must handle the potential ParseException
try {
    System.out.println(nf.parse("￥123,457"));
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

The output:

￥123,457
123457

Currencies  have a rounding increment that is also important.  A US dollar has cents, and so a currency should be rounded two decimal places.  A Japanese Yen should be rounded to the nearest integer.  If you specify a currency other than the default for the locale the rounding will reflect the locale and not the currency.