There are two quite separate issues here: 1) How can one format a numeric value as a string in the localised representation?
2) How can one parse a string in the localised representation into a numeric value? I believe that the standard C/C++ library provides no support whatever for either operation. On MS Windows, there is support for the first operation. The misleadingly-named GetNumberFormat takes a numeric string in Western format and produces a numeric string in localised format. One of its parameters is a locale ID. The documentation isn't clear on whether it will actually produce output in the alternate number system for the locale. Experimentation is needed. I've found that the related function, GetDateFormat, when working with the Hebrew calendar, will produce year, month and day numbers in the non-positional Hebrew number system, so it's possible that GetNumberFormat will do the same. For the second operation, Windows provides VarI4FromStr and VarR8FromStr. I think these functions are more limited in what they will accept. I have found that VarDateFromStr cannot parse a date in the Hebrew calendar - so it seems likely that these other functions cannot handle numbers formatted in a localised representation. If you find a good way of formatting or parsing using localised representation, I'd be very interested in hearing about it. Please CC me off the list, if this is deemed OT. Thanks - rick cameron -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, 15 March 2002 9:18 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: processing numeric strings I've got a question I asked about on a couple of other lists, but didn't get much response, so I thought I'd try here. One of our developers has asked me for input on a certain problem: "Do I need to be able to work with numbers represented using digits/numbering systems other than the European ("Arabic") decimal-based system, and if so how to I know what to do with things like U+0BF1 TAMIL NUMBER ONE HUNDRED?" I could easily answer the first part: Yes. At least, I know that some users of the software will want to work with Thai or Arabic ("Indic") digits, and I'm pretty sure I know of users who will want to work with the Ethiopic numbering system. Things like Thai aren't hard to deal with since the numbering system works the same way as our decimal numbering system; it's just that different characters are used for the digits. But things like Ethiopic (or Tamil) are more involved since the numbering system works on different principles. How are people dealing with presenting or interpreting numeric strings using systems such as Tamil, Ethiopic or even Thai, etc. digits, not all of which use numbering systems that work the same as the decimal system used in the west? (Note, this is *not* primarily about formatting issues such as decimal or group separators, though those are obviously also involved.) I'm not a C programmer so I don't know -- do C or C++ libraries provide functions for converting integer or other numeric data types into strings that allow one to select what script / numbering system to use? I'm pretty sure VB functions like Format$ or CLng only handle issues like decimal separators but not this; have I missed something? I've looked in MSDN Win32 documentation, and I see that GetLocaleInfo can tell you the locale-specific equivalents for digits 0 to 9, but that doesn't give you a way to present integers using them or to interpret a string of these as a numeric value, and I haven't seen anything else in Win32 that does that. Is there anything that perhaps I've just not found? Does COM provide anything? (I got one response from the other two lists I mentioned which did tell me what I suspected: the .Net framework doesn't provide any support for this kind of thing.) If the answers to all the above are negative (i.e. this functionality is neither built into compilers / libraries or into Windows), are there any open source implementations that deal with this? Does ICU handle this? If people are resorting to writing their own algorithms, where are you getting information about how different numbering systems work? Maybe my question should be to ask whether this *is* an issue for anyone else. The one response I got from the two other lists was from Michael Kaplan, who suggested that since software hasn't done this in the past, people have used decimal digits 0-9, with the result that there isn't really a current need for things like Tamil digits, and systems like Arabic are trivial do deal with. Are others finding there isn't much need for dealing with numbering systems that work differently from the Arabic decimal numbers? - Peter --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Constable Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA Tel: +1 972 708 7485 E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
