Use a custom thousand separator in C#

Question

I'm trying not to use the ',' char as a thousand separator when displaying a string, but to use a space instead. I guess I need to define a custom culture, but I don't seem to get it right. Any pointers?

eg: display 1000000 as 1 000 000 instead of 1,000,000

(no, String.Replace() is not the solution I'd like to use :P)

@Jon B - because Replace wouldn't be culture independent. What if your running on a computer where the thousand sep is . ? — Peter Lillevold, Apr 15 '09 at 15:17
and since I'm already formatting the number, it'd be cluttering the code — Luk, Apr 15 '09 at 15:21
@Peter - I belive you could use InvariantCulture and then do String.Replace(). I'm not arguing this as a good solution, I was just curious why the OP was opposed to it. — Jon B, Apr 15 '09 at 15:22

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-15T15:17:35.860

78

I suggest you find a NumberFormatInfo which most closely matches what you want (i.e. it's right apart from the thousands separator), call Clone() on it and then set the NumberGroupSeparator property. (If you're going to format the numbers using currency formats, you need to change CurrencyGroupSeparator instead/as well.) Use that as the format info for your calls to string.Format etc, and you should be fine. For example:

using System;
using System.Globalization;

class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        NumberFormatInfo nfi = (NumberFormatInfo)
            CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.NumberFormat.Clone();
        nfi.NumberGroupSeparator = " ";

        Console.WriteLine(12345.ToString("n", nfi)); // 12 345.00
    }
}

edited Apr 15 '09 at 15:17

answered Apr 15 '09 at 15:12

Jon Skeet

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That Skeet brand LoadBalancer has routing issues? – Dead account Apr 15 '09 at 15:15
This helps me out massively. Superb! – Oppdal Nov 24 '11 at 16:15

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 15 '09 at 15:12

9

Create your own NumberFormatInfo (derivative) with a different thousand separator.

answered Apr 15 '09 at 15:12

Lucero

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Invvard · Answer 3 · 2015-03-20T17:05:36.197

7

There's a slightly simpler version of Jon Skeet one :

using System;
using System.Globalization;

class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        NumberFormatInfo nfi = new NumberFormatInfo {NumberGroupSeparator = " ", NumberDecimalDigits = 0};

        Console.WriteLine(12345678.ToString("n", nfi)); // 12 345 678
    }
}

And the 'nfi' initialization could be skipped and put directly as parameter into the ToString() method.

edited Mar 20 '15 at 17:05

answered Jan 24 '14 at 13:14

Invvard

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That's basically John Skeet's answer rewritten. Not exactly creative or shorter! – Lorenz Lo Sauer Jul 07 '16 at 12:53

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 02 '12 at 13:10

3

Easiest way...

num.ToString("### ### ### ### ##0.00")

edited Nov 02 '12 at 13:10

Pranay Rana

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answered Apr 15 '09 at 15:18

Gordon Bell

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6

Although this works it will actually produce spaces in front of the number. For example the number 1 would have 4 spaces in front of it. So at least you will have to trim it. I think the best solution is to adjust the NumberFormatInfo if you want to override the Culture default format. – Johncl Oct 04 '11 at 07:20

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 24 '23 at 13:42

I wanted to

have space as a thousand separator,
have up to two decimals and
optionally be negative.

This code solves it:

var regex = new Regex(@"(^|(?<=-))\s*");
var format = "### ### ### ### ##0.##";
decimal number = 123456789.54m;
var str = regex.Replace(number.ToString(format), ""); // str = "123 456 789.54"

Here are examples of how this behaves for various numbers:

regex.Replace(0m.ToString(format), "")
"0"
regex.Replace(123m.ToString(format), "")
"123"
regex.Replace(123456789m.ToString(format), "")
"123 456 789"
regex.Replace(123456789.1m.ToString(format), "")
"123 456 789.1"
regex.Replace(123456789.12m.ToString(format), "")
"123 456 789.12"
regex.Replace(123456789.1234m.ToString(format), "")
"123 456 789.12"
regex.Replace((-123456789.1234m).ToString(format), "")
"-123 456 789.12"
regex.Replace((-1234m).ToString(format), "")
"-1 234"
regex.Replace((-1m).ToString(format), "")
"-1"

Use a custom thousand separator in C#

5 Answers5

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