[python] How can I convert a string with dot and comma into a float in Python

How can I convert a string like 123,456.908 to float 123456.908 in Python?

This question is related to python type-conversion

The answer is


Just remove the , with replace():

float("123,456.908".replace(',',''))

Just replace, with replace().

f = float("123,456.908".replace(',','')) print(type(f)

type() will show you that it has converted into a float


Better solution for different currency formats:

def text_currency_to_float(text):
  t = text
  dot_pos = t.rfind('.')
  comma_pos = t.rfind(',')
  if comma_pos > dot_pos:
    t = t.replace(".", "")
    t = t.replace(",", ".")
  else:
    t = t.replace(",", "")

  return(float(t))

Here's a simple way I wrote up for you. :)

>>> number = '123,456,789.908'.replace(',', '') # '123456789.908'
>>> float(number)
123456789.908

What about this?

 my_string = "123,456.908"
 commas_removed = my_string.replace(',', '') # remove comma separation
 my_float = float(commas_removed) # turn from string to float.

In short:

my_float = float(my_string.replace(',', ''))

s =  "123,456.908"
print float(s.replace(',', ''))

... Or instead of treating the commas as garbage to be filtered out, we could treat the overall string as a localized formatting of the float, and use the localization services:

from locale import atof, setlocale, LC_NUMERIC
setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, '') # set to your default locale; for me this is
# 'English_Canada.1252'. Or you could explicitly specify a locale in which floats
# are formatted the way that you describe, if that's not how your locale works :)
atof('123,456') # 123456.0
# To demonstrate, let's explicitly try a locale in which the comma is a
# decimal point:
setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, 'French_Canada.1252')
atof('123,456') # 123.456

If you have a comma as decimals separator and the dot as thousands separator, you can do:

s = s.replace('.','').replace(',','.')
number = float(s)

Hope it will help


If you don't know the locale and you want to parse any kind of number, use this parseNumber(text) function. It is not perfect but take into account most cases :

>>> parseNumber("a 125,00 €")
125
>>> parseNumber("100.000,000")
100000
>>> parseNumber("100 000,000")
100000
>>> parseNumber("100,000,000")
100000000
>>> parseNumber("100 000 000")
100000000
>>> parseNumber("100.001 001")
100.001
>>> parseNumber("$.3")
0.3
>>> parseNumber(".003")
0.003
>>> parseNumber(".003 55")
0.003
>>> parseNumber("3 005")
3005
>>> parseNumber("1.190,00 €")
1190
>>> parseNumber("1190,00 €")
1190
>>> parseNumber("1,190.00 €")
1190
>>> parseNumber("$1190.00")
1190
>>> parseNumber("$1 190.99")
1190.99
>>> parseNumber("1 000 000.3")
1000000.3
>>> parseNumber("1 0002,1.2")
10002.1
>>> parseNumber("")

>>> parseNumber(None)

>>> parseNumber(1)
1
>>> parseNumber(1.1)
1.1
>>> parseNumber("rrr1,.2o")
1
>>> parseNumber("rrr ,.o")

>>> parseNumber("rrr1rrr")
1