Format numbers as currency in Python

Question

I learn from Currency formatting in Python, use the locale module to format numbers as currency. For instance,

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import locale

value = 123456789

l = locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '')     # LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_NUMERIC=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_TIME=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_MONETARY=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_NAME=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_ADDRESS=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_TELEPHONE=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=fr_FR.UTF-8
s = locale.currency(value, grouping=True)   # 123 456 789,00 €

locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US.utf-8') 
s = locale.currency(value, grouping=True)   # $123,456,789.00

locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US')    # WHY? locale.Error: unsupported locale setting
s = locale.currency(value, grouping=True)

I'd like to format numbers to other currency, say de_DE. I encounter the issue locale.Error: unsupported locale setting since the locale de_DE is not in the list of locale -a.

locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de_DE')        # locale.Error: unsupported locale setting
s = locale.currency(value, grouping=True)

One solution is to add this locale to my machine. Is there a better way?

Answer 1

babel.numbers

In [22]: from babel.numbers import format_decimal
In [23]:  format_decimal(12345, locale='de_DE')
Out[23]: u'12.345'

In [24]: format_decimal(1.2345, locale='sv_SE')
Out[24]: u'1,234'

Or in your case format_currency:

In [7]: from babel.numbers import format_currency

In [8]: print format_currency(1099.98, 'USD', locale='en_US')
$1,099.98

In [9]: print format_currency(1099.98, 'USD', locale='es_CO')
1.099,98 US$

In [10]: print format_currency(1099.98, 'EUR', locale='de_DE')
1.099,98 €

Answer 2

For reference (for those that are looking to format numbers similar to how you would format currency), you can use locale.format_string to format numbers

value = 123456789

import locale
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de_DE') 
print(locale.format_string('%.2f', value, True))

Would return

123.456.789,00