Converting money formatted strings to floats

Question

I have to read a rather large file, containing numbers, formatted in different ways.

I have tried using the builtin floatval() function. This function works on some numbers, such as 22000.76, but not 22000,76.

Reading the comments on php.net have helped me a lot, I found this parseFloat function:

<?php 
function parseFloat($ptString) { 
        if (strlen($ptString) == 0) { 
                return false; 
        } 

        $pString = str_replace(" ", "", $ptString); 

        if (substr_count($pString, ",") > 1) 
            $pString = str_replace(",", "", $pString); 

        if (substr_count($pString, ".") > 1) 
            $pString = str_replace(".", "", $pString); 

        $pregResult = array(); 

        $commaset = strpos($pString,','); 
        if ($commaset === false) {$commaset = -1;} 

        $pointset = strpos($pString,'.'); 
        if ($pointset === false) {$pointset = -1;} 

        $pregResultA = array(); 
        $pregResultB = array(); 

        if ($pointset < $commaset) { 
            preg_match('#(([-]?[0-9]+(\.[0-9])?)+(,[0-9]+)?)#', $pString, $pregResultA); 
        } 
        preg_match('#(([-]?[0-9]+(,[0-9])?)+(\.[0-9]+)?)#', $pString, $pregResultB); 
        if ((isset($pregResultA[0]) && (!isset($pregResultB[0]) 
                || strstr($preResultA[0],$pregResultB[0]) == 0 
                || !$pointset))) { 
            $numberString = $pregResultA[0]; 
            $numberString = str_replace('.','',$numberString); 
            $numberString = str_replace(',','.',$numberString); 
        } 
        elseif (isset($pregResultB[0]) && (!isset($pregResultA[0]) 
                || strstr($pregResultB[0],$preResultA[0]) == 0 
                || !$commaset)) { 
            $numberString = $pregResultB[0]; 
            $numberString = str_replace(',','',$numberString); 
        } 
        else { 
            return false; 
        } 
        $result = (float)$numberString; 
        return $result; 
} 
?>

It works on almost all the numbers in my list. As I am using DKK as currency, some numbers are formatted like this: Kr. 100.00. This problem, I solved just be putting these lines in to top of the parseFloat function.

$prefix = substr($ptString, 0, 4); 
if ($prefix == "kr. " || $prefix == "Kr. ")
    $ptString = substr($ptString,4);

$prefix = substr($ptString, 0, 3); 
if ($prefix == "Kr." || $prefix == "kr.")
    $ptString = substr($ptString,3);

Now my problem only occurs on numbers, formatted like this 12.123.00, which should be to 12123.00

I think this can be solved with regular expressions (not my strength).

Basically, I'm asking to convert xx.xxx.dd to xxxxx.dd.

Dont think about rounding issues.

Don't use floats to store currency. You'll end up with rounding issues. Better to multiply by 100 and store it as a number of cents. — Spudley, Jun 22 '11 at 13:07
If you are on php 5.3, you can try [`NumberFormatter::parseCurrency`](http://php.net/manual/en/numberformatter.parsecurrency.php) — Carlos Campderrós, Jun 22 '11 at 13:08
@Spudley,Rounding issues are not a consideration, since this is not critical. — Ragnar123, Jun 22 '11 at 13:12
@Carlos, I don't have NumberFormatter on my server, any other suggestion? — Ragnar123, Jun 22 '11 at 13:22

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 22 '11 at 13:05

2

NumberFormatter has a parseCurrency() method that may prove useful.

answered Jun 22 '11 at 13:05

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

776,304
153
1,341
1,358

As I do not have `NumberFormatter` on my php installation, this is not an option, though it would be the best solution. Do you think it could be solved in regular expressions? – Ragnar123 Jun 22 '11 at 13:21

Oliver O'Neill · Answer 2 · 2011-06-22T14:46:58.877

1

if the figures always have the fraction (pence, cents, etc).. try this hack:

$value = (float)preg_replace('/\D/', '', $strToParse)/100;

edited Jun 22 '11 at 14:46

answered Jun 22 '11 at 14:41

Oliver O'Neill

1,229
6
11

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '11 at 15:23

If all your trouble is converting from xx.xxx.dd to xxxxx.dd, no need to use the regexp engine, you can just use the explode() function, for example:

$n = "123.456.78";
$a = explode(".", $n);

if(sizeof($a)==3) //had more than one dot
  $n = $a[0].$a[1].".".$a[2];

//$n now is 123456.78

Converting money formatted strings to floats

3 Answers3