[html] html5 input for money/currency

I seem unable to work out what to use for accepting monetary values on a form.

I have tried...

<input type="number" min="0" max="10000" step="1" name="Broker_Fees" id="broker_fees" required="required">

But that then won't allow for pence entries.

I want the incremental button control to go up in pounds, but still want the ability to enter pence.

Who would want to use an incremental button that moved 1p at a time?

Perhaps I'm using the wrong control , but I can't find a money/currency control?

Can someone please advise the best way to accept monetary values (including commas, decimal places and currency symbol) using HTML5?

Thanks, 1DMF

Enabling Fractions/Cents/Decimals for Number Input

In order to allow fractions (cents) on an HTML5 number input, you need to specify the "step" attribute to = "any":

<input type="number" min="1" step="any" />

This will specifically keep Chrome from displaying an error when a decimal/fractional currency is entered into the input. Mozilla, IE, etc... don't error out if you forget to specify step="any". W3C spec states that step="any" should, indeed, be needed to allow for decimals. So, you should definitely use it. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/number#step

Note that if you want the up/down buttons to do a specific granularity, then you must specify a numeric step such as ".01".

Also, the number input is now pretty widely supported (>90% of users).

What Input Options are there for Money/Currency?

The title of the question has since changed and takes on a slightly different meaning. One could use both number or text input in order to accept money/decimals.

For an input field for currency/money, it is recommended to use input type of number and specify appropriate attributes as outlined above. As of 2020, there is not a W3C spec for an actual input type of currency or money.

Main reason being it automatically coerces the users into entering a valid standard currency format and disallows any alphanumeric text. With that said, you could certainly use the regular text input and do some post processing to only grab the numeric/decimal value (there should be server side validation on this at some point as well).

The OP detailed a requirement of currency symbols and commas. If you want fancier logic/formatting like that, (as of 2020) you'll need to create custom JS logic for a text input or find a plugin.

Using javascript's Number.prototype.toLocaleString:

var currencyInput = document.querySelector('input[type="currency"]')
var currency = 'GBP' // https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/lists/list_one.xml

 // format inital value
onBlur({target:currencyInput})

// bind event listeners
currencyInput.addEventListener('focus', onFocus)
currencyInput.addEventListener('blur', onBlur)


function localStringToNumber( s ){
  return Number(String(s).replace(/[^0-9.-]+/g,""))
}

function onFocus(e){
  var value = e.target.value;
  e.target.value = value ? localStringToNumber(value) : ''
}

function onBlur(e){
  var value = e.target.value

  var options = {
      maximumFractionDigits : 2,
      currency              : currency,
      style                 : "currency",
      currencyDisplay       : "symbol"
  }
  
  e.target.value = (value || value === 0) 
    ? localStringToNumber(value).toLocaleString(undefined, options)
    : ''
}

input{
  padding: 10px;
  font: 20px Arial;
  width: 70%;
}

<input type='currency' value="123" placeholder='Type a number & click outside' />

Here's a very simple demo illustrating the above method (HTML-only)

I've made a tiny React component if anyone's interested

Try using step="0.01", then it will step by a penny each time.

eg:

<input type="number" min="0.00" max="10000.00" step="0.01" />

More easy and beautiful if you has vue.js v-money-spinner :)

I stumbled across this article looking for a similar answer. I read @vsync example Using javascript's Number.prototype.toLocaleString: and it appeared to work well. The only complaint I had was that if you had more than a single input type="currency" within your page it would only modify the first instance of it.

As he mentions in his comments it was only designed as an example for stackoverflow.

However, the example worked well for me and although I have little experience with JS I figured out how to modify it so that it will work with multiple input type="currency" on the page using the document.querySelectorAll rather than document.querySelector and adding a for loop.

I hope this can be useful for someone else. ( Credit for the bulk of the code is @vsync )

var currencyInput = document.querySelectorAll( 'input[type="currency"]' );

for ( var i = 0; i < currencyInput.length; i++ ) {

    var currency = 'GBP'
    onBlur( {
        target: currencyInput[ i ]
    } )

    currencyInput[ i ].addEventListener( 'focus', onFocus )
    currencyInput[ i ].addEventListener( 'blur', onBlur )

    function localStringToNumber( s ) {
        return Number( String( s ).replace( /[^0-9.-]+/g, "" ) )
    }

    function onFocus( e ) {
        var value = e.target.value;
        e.target.value = value ? localStringToNumber( value ) : ''
    }

    function onBlur( e ) {
        var value = e.target.value

        var options = {
            maximumFractionDigits: 2,
            currency: currency,
            style: "currency",
            currencyDisplay: "symbol"
        }

        e.target.value = ( value || value === 0 ) ?
            localStringToNumber( value ).toLocaleString( undefined, options ) :
            ''
    }
}

    var currencyInput = document.querySelectorAll( 'input[type="currency"]' );

    for ( var i = 0; i < currencyInput.length; i++ ) {

        var currency = 'GBP'
        onBlur( {
            target: currencyInput[ i ]
        } )

        currencyInput[ i ].addEventListener( 'focus', onFocus )
        currencyInput[ i ].addEventListener( 'blur', onBlur )

        function localStringToNumber( s ) {
            return Number( String( s ).replace( /[^0-9.-]+/g, "" ) )
        }

        function onFocus( e ) {
            var value = e.target.value;
            e.target.value = value ? localStringToNumber( value ) : ''
        }

        function onBlur( e ) {
            var value = e.target.value

            var options = {
                maximumFractionDigits: 2,
                currency: currency,
                style: "currency",
                currencyDisplay: "symbol"
            }

            e.target.value = ( value || value === 0 ) ?
                localStringToNumber( value ).toLocaleString( undefined, options ) :
                ''
        }
    }

.input_date {
    margin:1px 0px 50px 0px;
    font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif;
    font-size: 18px;
    line-height: 1.5;
    color: #111;
    display: block;
    background: #ddd;
    height: 50px;
    border-radius: 5px;
    border: 2px solid #111111;
    padding: 0 20px 0 20px;
    width: 100px;
}

    <label for="cost_of_sale">Cost of Sale</label>
    <input class="input_date" type="currency" name="cost_of_sale" id="cost_of_sale" value="0.00">

    <label for="sales">Sales</label>
    <input class="input_date" type="currency" name="sales" id="sales" value="0.00">

     <label for="gm_pounds">GM Pounds</label>
     <input class="input_date" type="currency" name="gm_pounds" id="gm_pounds" value="0.00">

We had the same problem for accepting monetary values for Euro, since <input type="number" /> can't display Euro decimal and comma format.

We came up with a solution, to use <input type="number" /> for user input. After user types in the value, we format it and display as a Euro format by just switching to <input type="text" />. This is a Javascript solution though, cuz you need a condition to decide between "user is typing" and "display to user" modes.

Here the link with Visuals to our solution: Input field type "Currency" problem solved

Hope this helps in some way!

Well in the end I had to compromise by implementing a HTML5/CSS solution, forgoing increment buttons in IE (they're a bit broke in FF anyway!), but gaining number validation that the JQuery spinner doesn't provide. Though I have had to go with a step of whole numbers.

span.gbp {_x000D_
    float: left;_x000D_
    text-align: left;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
span.gbp::before {_x000D_
    float: left;_x000D_
    content: "\00a3"; /* £ */_x000D_
    padding: 3px 4px 3px 3px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
span.gbp input {_x000D_
     width: 280px !important;_x000D_
}

<label for="broker_fees">Broker Fees</label>_x000D_
<span class="gbp">_x000D_
    <input type="number" placeholder="Enter whole GBP (&pound;) or zero for none" min="0" max="10000" step="1" value="" name="Broker_Fees" id="broker_fees" required="required" />_x000D_
</span>

The validation is a bit flaky across browsers, where IE/FF allow commas and decimal places (as long as it's .00), where as Chrome/Opera don't and want just numbers.

I guess it's a shame that the JQuery spinner won't work with a number type input, but the docs explicitly state not to do that :-( and I'm puzzled as to why a number spinner widget allows input of any ascii char?