Option to exclude currency symbol from currency method

[sts-ryan-holton]

I've recently started using the currency method of the Number helper. In my use case I need to commit the currency symbol but retain the locale and other currency features. I tried passing an empty value to this but id doesn't return without a symbol.

Maybe we could introduce a new feature to exclude the symbol, or a new method that wraps the function just without the symbol?

Number::currency(100, ''); // passing empty currency doesn't return without symbol

[M47E]

You can achieve your goal of formatting currency without displaying the currency symbol while retaining locale and other features by creating a custom wrapper around the Number::currency method. While the built-in method does not allow for suppressing the symbol directly, you can easily extend its functionality.

Here's how you could implement a custom helper function to format the number as currency without the symbol:

Custom Helper Function

1. Create a Custom Helper

You can create a new helper function in a file such as app/Helpers/NumberHelper.php (or wherever you store your helpers):

namespace App\Helpers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Number;

class NumberHelper
{
    public static function currencyWithoutSymbol($value, $currency = null, $locale = null)
    {
        // Format the number as currency
        $formatted = Number::currency($value, $currency, $locale);

        // Remove the currency symbol
        return preg_replace('/[^\d.,]/', '', $formatted);
    }
}

Usage

2. Using the Custom Helper

Now, you can call this helper wherever you need to format the number without a currency symbol:

use App\Helpers\NumberHelper;

$amount = 100;
$formattedAmount = NumberHelper::currencyWithoutSymbol($amount, 'USD', 'en_US'); // returns "100.00"

Registering the Helper

If you haven't already, ensure your helper file is autoloaded. You can do this by including it in composer.json under the autoload section:

"autoload": {
    "files": [
        "app/Helpers/NumberHelper.php"
    ]
}

Then run:

composer dump-autoload

Additional Considerations

• Locale and Formatting: This method retains locale formatting. If you pass different locales, it will adjust the decimal and thousands separators accordingly.
• Performance: Ensure that the regex used for stripping the currency symbol is performant for your use case.
• Testing: Test this function with various currency formats to ensure it meets your requirements.

Alternative Approach

If you'd prefer to add this functionality directly into your existing application without a helper, consider extending the Number facade:

namespace App\Facades;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Number as BaseNumber;

class Number extends BaseNumber
{
    public static function currencyWithoutSymbol($value, $currency = null, $locale = null)
    {
        $formatted = parent::currency($value, $currency, $locale);
        return preg_replace('/[^\d.,]/', '', $formatted);
    }
}

In this case, you’d register your custom facade in config/app.php and use it similarly as shown above.

[sts-ryan-holton]

@tal7aouy I could create a PR for this into the framework?

[shaedrich]

return preg_replace('/[^\d.,]/', '', $formatted);

This would also strip away other locale-specific formatting such as grouping, thousands separator, etc.

(BTW: Your answer is writtengenerated by AI, isn't it?)

If you wanted to keep these, this would result in something like this (and this only respects a few possibilities, yet there are more):

namespace App\Helpers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Number;

class NumberHelper
{
  private static function withLocale(array|string $locale, callable $callback)
  {
    $orginalMonetaryLocale = setlocale(LC_MONETARY, 0);
    $orginalNumericLocale = setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, 0);

    if (is_string($locale)) {
      $temporaryMonetaryLocale = $temporaryNumericLocale = $locale;
    } else {
      [ $temporaryMonetaryLocale, $temporaryNumericLocale ] = $locale;
    }

    if ($orginalMonetaryLocale !== $locale) {
      setlocale(LC_MONETARY, $locale);
    }

    if ($orginalNumericLocale !== $locale) {
      setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, $locale);
    }

    $result = call_user_func($callback, localeconv());

    if ($monetaryLocale !== $locale) {
      setlocale(LC_MONETARY, $orginalMonetaryLocale);
    }

    if ($orginalNumericLocale !== $locale) {
      setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, $orginalNumericLocale);
    }

    return $result;
  }

  public static function currencyWithoutSymbol($value, $currency = null, $locale = null)
  {
    return self::withLocale($locale, function(array $lConf) use ($value, $currency, $locale) {
      $reAllowList = [
        '\d',
        $lConf['mon_decimal_point'],
        $lConf['mon_thousands_sep'],
        $lConf['positive_sign'],
        $lConf['negative_sign'],
      ];

      // Format the number as currency
      $formatted = Number::currency($value, $currency, $locale);

      // Remove the currency symbol
      return preg_replace('/[^'.implode('', $reAllowList).']/', '', $formatted);
    });
  }
}

[shaedrich]

Without the currency symbol, it works pretty much like Number::format(), doesn't it? Doesn't that work for your use case?

Maybe, it's interesting to not, that the class is merely a wrapper for the native NumberFormatter and therefore aims to work quite similar. NumberFormatter::formatCurrency() in return is based on ICU NumberFormat.

You can probably create your own rule-based formatter, but that might require you to reproduce most of the existing currency formatting functionality.