Number::Format - Convert numbers to strings with pretty formatting

Version: 1.41

WHAT IS IT

Number::Format is a library for formatting numbers.  Functions are
provided for converting numbers to strings in a variety of ways, and to
convert strings that contain numbers back into numeric form.  The output
formats may include thousands separators - characters inserted between
each group of three characters counting right to left from the decimal
point.  The characters used for the decimal point and the thousands
separator come from the locale information or can be specified by the
user.

Also of note is the format_picture command which converts a number into
a string using a "picture" string that you provide.  This is similar to
the PRINT USING statement that some versions of BASIC have.


BUILDING/INSTALLING

Perl version 5.003 or higher is required.  This package is set up to
configure and build like a typical Perl extension.  To build:

        perl Makefile.PL
	make && make test && make install
	make install

NOTE: You may need super-user access to install.


PROBLEMS/BUG REPORTS

Please send any reports of problems or bugs to wrw@bayview.com.


MAILING LIST

We have an electronic mailing list for announcements of new releases
of this module.  To join send mail to majordomo@bayview.com with the
command in the body of the message:

	subscribe number-format-announce


CREDITS AND LICENSES

This package is copyright 1997-8 by William R. Ward <wrw@bayview.com>
and may be distributed under terms of the Artistic License used to cover
Perl itself.  See the file Artistic in the distribution of Perl 5.002 or
later for details of copy and distribution terms.


CHANGE HISTORY

This is version 1.41:

  - Fix 'undefined value' warnings in format_picture
  - Fix bug in format_picture to show decimal point if and only if it
    is present in the picture string (bug reported by Michael Scoltock
    <scoltock@ictp.trieste.it>)
  - Fix bug in format_price that would suppress currency symbol if no
    decimal digits (bug reported by Michael Scoltock
    <scoltock@ictp.trieste.it>)

version 1.40:

  - Add new function format_bytes() to display '1K' for '1024', etc.
    (suggested by Curt Tilmes <curt@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov>)
  - Fix bugs in round() and format_picture() when dealing with negative
    numbers.  NOTE: format_picture() now includes at least one extra
    space in its output for positive numbers.  This may present a minor
    incompatibility issue in some obscure cases.
  - Minor documentation updates.

version 1.30:

  - Fix several major bugs, including the POSIX-not-required issue, as
    well as better support for negative values.
  - Add setting for default size of decimal area so you don't have to
    specify the number of digits if it's other than 2.
  - Add setting and function to display negative numbers in different
    formats.
  - Add setting to force trailing 0's in the decimal portion to fill out
    the number of digits required.
  - Fix problem where 0's inside format_picture()'s output were being
    replaced with spaces.
  - Add 0 before decimal point if number is between -1 and 1.

version 1.20:

  - Make POSIX no longer required (users on MicroSoft systems sometimes
    don't have it); uses US defaults if no POSIX.pm found.
  - Add new optional third argument to format_number() to add trailing
    zeroes.
 
version 1.12:

  - Remove 'use of undefined value' warnings when used with perl -w

version 1.10:

  - Add object oriented interface and support for POSIX locales.

  - NOTE: Some aspects of the API have changed.  Please reread the
    documentation carefully if you used 1.0 previously!!!

Initial version 1.0:

  - Limited release beta version.