Currency as string or currency as number?

Question

JSON web service: Whats the best way to output currency?

As a string OR

"Amount": "100.12345"

As an Number?

 "Amount": 100.12345

PayЗal and Google Checkout output json as a string. Why?

It depends on the use case. String + is concatenation, although some shopkeeper may enjoy that $3 item plus $4 item is $34 the joke will only be funny one time. The only bad thing about numbers is they often need rounding. Still I would go with number. — Paul, Aug 14 '13 at 04:11

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 14 '13 at 04:09

2

I would do an integer of cents to keep it as simple as possible.

"Amount": 1045

...

var amount = json.amount/100;

...

amount === 10.45

answered Aug 14 '13 at 04:09

David Sawyer

You could also include properties "currency":'US$' and "currencyScale":0.01 – Paul Aug 14 '13 at 04:12

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

1

In my opinion use number until parsing in C# will be to decimal (not double). For more information you can look here Why not use Double or Float to represent currency?

In JavaScript it doesn't matter what you use.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

Community

answered Aug 14 '13 at 04:11

Piotr Stapp

2 Answers2