[c#] Currency format for display

Is there a way to format the correct currency representation for a country?

Example UK -£127.54 Netherlands € 127,54- USA $127.54

etc..

Some things to consider,

1. Currency Symbol

2. Currency symbol placement -- It can be either place before or after the digits.

3. Negative-amount display

The problem with taking a given number and displaying it with .ToString("C", culture) is that it effectively changes the amount to the default currency of the given culture. If you have a given amount, the ISO currency code of that amount, and you want to display it for a given culture, I would recommend just creating a decimal extension method like the one below. This will not automatically assume that the currency is in the default currency of the culture:

public static string ToFormattedCurrencyString(
    this decimal currencyAmount,
    string isoCurrencyCode,
CultureInfo userCulture)
{
    var userCurrencyCode = new RegionInfo(userCulture.Name).ISOCurrencySymbol;

    if (userCurrencyCode == isoCurrencyCode)
    {
        return currencyAmount.ToString("C", userCulture);
    }

    return string.Format(
        "{0} {1}", 
        isoCurrencyCode, 
        currencyAmount.ToString("N2", userCulture));
}

This will either use the local currency symbol or the ISO currency code with the amount -- whichever is more appropriate. More on the topic in this blog post.

public static string ToFormattedCurrencyString(
    this decimal currencyAmount,
    string isoCurrencyCode,
    CultureInfo userCulture)
{
    var userCurrencyCode = new RegionInfo(userCulture.Name).ISOCurrencySymbol;

if (userCurrencyCode == isoCurrencyCode)
{
    return currencyAmount.ToString("C", userCulture);
}

return string.Format(
    "{0} {1}", 
    isoCurrencyCode, 
    currencyAmount.ToString("N2", userCulture));

}

You can use string.Format("{0:c}", value).

See also here:

• Currency Formatting in the .NET Framework

This code- (sets currency to GB(Britain/UK/England/£) then prints a line. Then sets currency to US/$ and prints a line)

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-GB",false);         
Console.WriteLine("bbbbbbb   {0:c}",4321.2);
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-US",false);
Console.WriteLine("bbbbbbb   {0:c}",4321.2);

Will display-

bbbbbbb   £4,321.20
bbbbbbb   $4,321.20

For a list of culture names e.g. en-GB en-US e.t.c.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.cultureinfo(v=vs.80).aspx

If you just have the currency symbol and the number of decimal places, you can use the following helper function, which respects the symbol/amount order, separators etc, only changing the currency symbol itself and the number of decimal places to display to.

public static string FormatCurrency(string currencySymbol, Decimal currency, int decPlaces)
{
    NumberFormatInfo localFormat = (NumberFormatInfo)NumberFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.Clone();
    localFormat.CurrencySymbol = currencySymbol;
    localFormat.CurrencyDecimalDigits = decPlaces;
    return currency.ToString("c", localFormat);
}

This kind of functionality is built in.

When using a decimal you can use a format string "C" or "c".

decimal dec = 123.00M;
string uk = dec.ToString("C", new CultureInfo("en-GB")); // uk holds "£123.00"
string us = dec.ToString("C", new CultureInfo("en-US")); // us holds "$123.00"