Java: Currency symbol based on ISO 4217 currency cod

Question

Below program prints the Currency symbol given the ISO 4217 currency code.

import java.util.*;

public class Currency{

    public static void main(String args[]         


        

Answer 1

Currency.getSymbol() returns the currency symbol relative to the default locale.

Gets the symbol of this currency for the default locale. For example, for the US Dollar, the symbol is "$" if the default locale is the US, while for other locales it may be "US$". If no symbol can be determined, the ISO 4217 currency code is returned.

Use Currency.getSymbol(Locale locale) if you want the symbol for a different locale.

System.out.println(
   Currency.getInstance("USD").getSymbol(Locale.US)
);
// prints $

System.out.println(
   Currency.getInstance("USD").getSymbol(Locale.FRANCE)
);
// prints USD

System.out.println(
   Currency.getInstance("EUR").getSymbol(Locale.US)
);
// prints EUR

System.out.println(
   Currency.getInstance("EUR").getSymbol(Locale.FRANCE)
);
// prints €

(see also on ideone.com).

Answer 2

For me, your code even in the first case returns USD. It seemes, that Currency heavily depends on the JRE version (1.6 for me). Perosnally I recommend you to write your own CUR to symbol conversion module - it will be much easier, than try to use this one.

Answer 3

Using the limited Locale enum's only caters for westernised symbols. If you want to be a little more global try using Locales provided by:

Locale[] locales = Locale.getAvailableLocales();

Using Locales from this list gave symbols rather than TLA's pretty consistently.

Answer 4

If someone needs it the other way round (for example € -> EUR)

String currency = €;
String currencyCode = "";
for (Currency c : Currency.getAvailableCurrencies()) {
    if (c.getSymbol().equals(currency)) {
        currencyCode = c.toString();
    }
}