[SOLVED] Format Currency

Hey Aaron,

I've recently coded some generic routines that let you format numbers to arbitrary locales (and cnvert arbitrary locale numbers to VB6 currency or other numeric variables). For example, you can pass a VB currency variable to my function and choose the Currency symbol, grouping symbol, decimal symbol and decimal places (my functions use the GetCurrencyFormat and GetNumberFormat APIs). I don't know exactly how you would use these with the ReportControl specifically (I haven't used the RC too much yet), but if these are something you want I can post them here (and you could post your results of integrating the routines to work with the RC  )

[See post below for most recent code]

For everything to work as expected, you should treat all of the currency values that users type in to your program as strings formatted for an arbitrary (but pre-defined) locale, then convert those strings to currency values (using the ArbitraryLocaleNumberToCurrency function) for math functions, and then re-convert the results to arbitrary locale strings using the FormatMoney function when displaying them to the user. This will allow you to use currency formatting for locales other than the users current locale (and without requiring them to change regional settings just to use currencies and formats for different locales).

If you find any problems with the code, please get back to me.

See Post Below For Most Recent Code

The test app should work like this:

1) Change the Grouping symbol to "."
2) Change the decimal symbol to ","
3) Type a number into the "User Locale Currency" (formatted to you current locale format as defined in your regional settings) and then click Convert. You should see something like this:




So the amount as originally typed must be in your current locale format so that CCur() can convert it to a VB6 Currency type. That value is then converted to an arbitrary locale format and returned as a string.

Or are you trying to accomplish something else?

There could be a bug, but here is how it is supposed to work:

The textbox input has to be in the locale of your system as defined in the Regional Settings control panel. So if your number format is set to 1,234.55, then the input will have to be in that format.

If you want to use an arbitrary locale format for your input, you will have to use the ArbitraryLocaleNumberToCurrency() function on the input first (to convert it to a VB6 currency variable) and then pass that VB6 variable to the FormatMoney function for re-formatting. For example:

Regional Settings Number Format: 1,234.55
User Input in TextBox: 1.234,55
Send User Input to ArbitraryLocaleToCurrency("1.234,55", ".", ",", "") - Result = 1234.55 VB6 Currency Variable
Send Result of ArbitraryLocaleNumberToCurrency to FormatMoney(1234.55, decimal_Round, True, digitgrouping_Common, Chr$(128), ".", ",", True, False, negativestyle_Parentheses) Result = €1.234,55

if you regional settings are NOT set to "," grouping symbol and "." decimal symbol, then there is likely a bug and I will have to track it down.

Hi Aaron,

Sorry about that, as I mentioned the code was only lightly tested so far. The problem stemmed from my misunderstanding of the Currency variable type in VB6. I thought that it would be internally stored with a "." for the decimal separator no matter what, but it appears that the implicit conversion to a string used the current locale format. The GetCurrencyFormat API requires the decimal separator to be a "."

I have modified the code (including an unrelated bugfix in the ConvertArbitraryLocaleNumberToUserLocale function), and this should be working now:

uploads/20090610_183606_MoneyFormat.zip

Hi,

Also, thanks for helping me test it out in a different locale and reporting the bugs.