CurrencyFormat puts parenthesis around negative numbers

dev support
1

Hi All,
I have recently made a fresh install of Lucee 6.2 on a new server. Since then the function currencyformat displays all negative numbers with parenthesis no matter what locale I set.

This can be reproduced using the code editor i.e. on LSCurrencyFormat() :: Lucee Documentation. If I use the “Lucee 6 Latest” as engine it puts parenthesis, if I change it to Lucee 5.4 LTS it doesn’t.

Is there a setting/file where I can change this? I would want negative without parenthesis.

Thanks for any help!
Kind regards Daniel

Don’t forget to tell us about your stack!

OS: Windows Server 2022 (10.0) 64bit
Java Version: 21.0.6 (Eclipse Adoptium) 64bit
Tomcat Version: Apache Tomcat/10.1.36
Lucee Version: 6.2.0.321

2

I just found this here: Issue navigator - Lucee which marks this issue as solved a year ago.

Am I looking at the wrong place or did this issue come back?

3

As noted per the ticket, java 11 had a quirk, ACF is doing exactly the same?

workaround would be to do the following, you can switch engines to see ACF doing the same

<cfscript>
     n =-1;
     
     writeDump(n);
     writeDump(lsCurrencyFormat(n));
     writeDump(currency(n));
     
     function currency(n){
        if (n >= 0)
            return lsCurrencyFormat(n);
        else
            return "-" & lsCurrencyFormat(abs(n));
     }
</cfscript>

Lucee 6.2.0
image

ACF 2023
image

As you’ll see that produces consistent results between engines

4

Thanks for the reply Zackster.

I see that ACF does the same thing. But I still don’t understand why negative numbers have parenthesis though. Is it some kind of international formatting convention(?) I have never used this kind of formatting… being in Germany most of the time…

Also, why should a negative “currency number” have parenthesis and a regular number not? Compare lsCurrencyFormat(-1) and lsNumberFormat(-1).

Anyhow, so I guess I have to use the LSnumberformat() and add my currency symbol whenever needed. Not much of a deal in my case. But it make the function lscurrencyformat useless to me.

Thanks so far.
Kind regards Daniel

5

But I agree, it annoying, so for Lucee 7, I’m adding an optional useBrackets argument

https://luceeserver.atlassian.net/browse/LDEV-5483

1 Like
6

sounds good. thank you!

7
1 Like
8

The historical roots are in bookkeeping to visibly differentiate from positive amounts in financial statements. You’ll see parentheses, red text, etc as options for currency formatting in spreadsheet apps also.