added PEP 378, "Format Specifier for Thousands Separator", by Raymond Hettinger

pep-0378.txt

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+PEP: 378
+Title: Format Specifier for Thousands Separator
+Version: $Revision$
+Last-Modified: $Date$
+Author: Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com>
+Status: Draft
+Type: Standards Track
+Content-Type: text/x-rst
+Created: 12-Mar-2009
+Post-History: 12-Mar-2009
+
+
+Motivation
+==========
+
+Provide a simple, non-locale aware way to format a number
+with a thousands separator.
+
+Adding thousands separators is one of the simplest ways to
+improve the professional appearance and readability of output
+exposed to end users.
+
+In the finance world, output with commas is the norm.  Finance
+users and non-professional programmers find the locale
+approach to be frustrating, arcane and non-obvious.
+
+It is not the goal to replace locale or to accommodate every
+possible convention.  The goal is to make a common task easier
+for many users.
+
+
+Current Version of the Mini-Language
+====================================
+
+* `Python 2.6 docs`_
+
+  .. _Python 2.6 docs: http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatstrings
+
+* PEP 3101 Advanced String Formatting
+
+
+Research so far
+===============
+
+Scanning the web, I've found that thousands separators are
+usually one of COMMA, DOT, SPACE, or UNDERSCORE.  
+When a COMMA is the decimal separator, the thousands separator
+is typically a DOT or SPACE (see examples from Denis Spir).
+
+James Knight observed that Indian/Pakistani numbering systems
+group by hundreds.   Ben Finney noted that Chinese group by
+ten-thousands.  Eric Smith pointed-out that these are already
+handled by the "n" specifier in the locale module (albiet only
+for integers).
+
+Visual Basic and its brethren (like MS Excel) use a completely
+different style and have ultra-flexible custom format
+specifiers like: "_($* #,##0_)".
+
+
+Proposal I (from Nick Coghlan)
+==============================
+
+A comma will be added to the format() specifier mini-language:
+
+[[fill]align][sign][#][0][width][,][.precision][type]
+
+The ',' option indicates that commas should be included in the
+output as a thousands separator. As with locales which do not
+use a period as the decimal point, locales which use a
+different convention for digit separation will need to use the
+locale module to obtain appropriate formatting.
+
+The proposal works well with floats, ints, and decimals.
+It also allows easy substitution for other separators.
+For example::
+
+  format(n, "6,f").replace(",", "_")
+
+This technique is completely general but it is awkward in the
+one case where the commas and periods need to be swapped::
+
+  format(n, "6,f").replace(",", "X").replace(".", ",").replace("X", ".")
+
+
+Proposal II (to meet Antoine Pitrou's request)
+==============================================
+
+Make both the thousands separator and decimal separator user
+specifiable but not locale aware.  For simplicity, limit the
+choices to a comma, period, space, or underscore.
+
+[[fill]align][sign][#][0][width][T[tsep]][dsep precision][type]
+
+Examples::
+
+  format(1234, "8.1f")    -->     '  1234.0'
+  format(1234, "8,1f")    -->     '  1234,0'
+  format(1234, "8T.,1f")  -->     ' 1.234,0'
+  format(1234, "8T .f")   -->     ' 1 234,0'
+  format(1234, "8d")      -->     '    1234'
+  format(1234, "8T,d")    -->     '   1,234'
+
+This proposal meets mosts needs (except for people wanting
+grouping for hundreds or ten-thousands), but it comes at the
+expense of being a little more complicated to learn and
+remember.  Also, it makes it more challenging to write custom
+__format__ methods that follow the format specification
+mini-language.
+
+No change is proposed for the local module.
+
+
+Other Ideas
+===========
+
+* Lie Ryan suggested a convenience function of the form::
+
+    create_format(self, type='i', base=16, seppos=4, sep=':', \
+                  charset='0123456789abcdef', maxwidth=32,    \
+                  minwidth=32, pad='0')
+
+* Eric Smith would like the C version of the mini-language
+  parser to be exposed.  That would make it easier to write
+  custom __format__ methods.
+
+
+Copyright
+=========
+
+This document has been placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+..
+   Local Variables:
+   mode: indented-text
+   indent-tabs-mode: nil
+   sentence-end-double-space: t
+   fill-column: 70
+   coding: utf-8
+   End: