Decimal Seperators Help

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DiverDan

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Sacramento, CA
I have recently entered into a discussion concerning international SI numeric display. From what I have read from NIST (the US National Institute of Standards and Technology), NASA, and many SI publications the correct format is a space for thousands seperators and a dot for decimal ie:
1 000.00
1 000 000.000 000
etc.

However, this is being challenged by individuals from latin countries who use a comma as a decimal seperator ie:
1000,00

So I researched more and found that pre-1990 non-english speaking countries (France, Spain, etc.) were using a comma as a decimal seperator. But I think the addition of computer has dispelled the comma use as all current documentation I've found uses a dot.

I post this question here since this is an international board and the USA does use both SI and Metric units and systems, but not necessarly in their true format.

What is the correct international SI numeric format?

Thanks
Dan
 
Well, I don't know in what latin countries, but in the country I was born (Mexico) the correct way to write a number is for example

1,000.00 or 1,000,000.00

if you use 1.000,00 the banks will reject your paycheck :D
 
Thanks iebidan,

This makes so much sense!!! The country in question is Mexico and an Electrical Engineer is stating differently in conjuction with NOM, the Mexcian equivelent of our National Electric Code. He is also stating that most countries use this format with SI???? I think something has got into to his pinto beans, but I need to know absolutely.

Dan
 
NOM is it Norma Oficial Mexicana??? and this guy say that in Mexico they use the comma as a decimal separator? he's nuts, believe me, I lived there for too many years, I was born there and I remeber perfectly the way to write numbers down.
You can double check this with Windows configurations? select the regional configuartion for Mexico and you 'll see what I mean, there are many things that differ between the US and Mexico, like language, in Mexico they use the decimal system while in the US is the Imperial system, etc etc, but numbers are written the same way.

Cheers
 
Yes, NOM is Norma Oficial Mexicana...then he sends me a 2 meg Word file of NOM and points to page 62 and the following table:

Tabla 21 - Reglas para la escritura de los números y su signo decimal

Números Los números deben ser generalmente impresos en tipo romano. Para facilitar la lectura de números con varios dígitos, estos deben ser separados en grupos apropiados preferentemente de tres, contando del signo decimal a la derecha y a la izquierda, los grupos deben ser separados por un pequeño espacio, nunca con una coma, un punto, o por otro medio.
Signo decimal El signo decimal debe ser una coma sobre la línea (,). Si la magnitud de un número es menor que la unidad, el signo decimal debe ser precedido por un cero.

I just can't believe this.
Dan
 
Sorry to disappoint you but there is nothing such as decimal format writting...

All the following formats are valid and must be understood by Softwares

1.000.000,000
1000,0
1 000,000
1,000,000.000
1 000 000.000

As you stated, some latin country use , as separator when other use dot. The link between the display format and the user is accomplished through the local which defines regional settings of an application.

It does not make more sense to use . toward , neither the opposite. A piece of software must be usable by all...

For my specific case, I'm leading projects for a major company having 50K employees around the world and mainly in France / Uk / Germany. None of those country use the same format, but you cannot enforce them to one specific format without generating errors in your data...
 
Hi test,

Welcome to the forum!!!

You actually can "set" your software to accept only one format...but you are right, the software product should support all formats. This can be a bit difficult but if you write a conversion function for numeric inputs then you can have your formulae and databases in a set format with the users input in any "normal" numeric format for their country. My customers are located in every continent in the World with all but one of our products supporting all numeric formats. We have scheduled converting the last of our programs for the 4th quarter of next year.

However, IN MY OPINION ONLY (something this forum has a problem understanding for some reason...maybe too many beginning programmers who can't understand the concept of a personal opinion yet) numeric formats should be universal....like SI units and mathematics. The only reason for the mixture of formats are the politicians’ egos. Hopefully this will be remedied in the future when engineers and scientists refuse to recognize political standards, and start using a standard format. (The inch is based on the King's pointer finger's first digit measurement??? yeap.) I personally like:

$1 000,00 for one thousand dollars as the space for the thousands separator makes the number easier to read and the comma is also much easier to read and can’t become mixed up with using a dot as a multiplication symbol. humm...isn't that Frances format...makes sense as they developed the metric system during the French Revolution...in "Modern" times, with scientific thought and principles as guide lines...and not the King's finger or how much land a single ox can plow in one day (the acre).

This is only my opinion...
 
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