Separating arguments to a function, in locales with comma as decimal marker

Posted by Chris Pousset on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Chris Pousset
Published on 2010-05-24T18:58:29Z Indexed on 2010/05/24 19:01 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 363

Filed under:

localization

|

functions

|

numbers

|

delimiter

|

comma

In locales, e.g. French, with comma as decimal indicator (where "5,2" means five and two-tenths), how do users separate function arguments from each other?

For example, in many programming/scripting languages, I could specify MAX(1.5, X) in a EN-US locale. How do you avoid the ambiguity between the comma as decimal indicator, and as argument separator?

In particular, I'm interested in how software that's perceived as user-friendly in the foreign locale does it. Obviously, it's a no-brainer to say, "thou shalt use decimal POINTs", but that's not particularly "friendly".

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about localization

Setting up and using Bing Translate API Service for Machine Translation

as seen on West-Wind - Search for 'West-Wind'
Last week I spent quite a bit of time trying to set up the Bing Translate API service. I can honestly say this was one of the most screwed up developer experiences I've had in a long while - specifically related to the byzantine sign up process that Microsoft has in place. Not only is it nearly impossible… >>> More
Developing web application with time zones support

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
When you develop web application you should know that client PCs can be located anywhere on earth. Even if you develop app just for your country users you should remember it (in Russia now we have 9 time zones, before 28 of March we had 11 time zones). On big sites with many members do it very easy… >>> More
Text Expansion Awareness for UX Designers: Points to Consider

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Awareness of translated text expansion dynamics is important for enterprise applications UX designers (I am assuming all source text for translation is in English, though apps development can takes place in other natural languages too). This consideration goes beyond the standard 'character multiplication'… >>> More
Where Next for Google Translate? And What of Information Quality?

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Fascinating article in the UK Guardian newspaper called Can Google break the computer language barrier? In it, Andreas Zollman, who works on Google Translate, comments that the quality of Google Translate's output relative to the amount of data required to create that output is clearly now falling… >>> More
In what URL segment do you have language? /en/admin/dashboard or /admin/en/dashboard?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
maybe you are thinking that this is another dump question about language in URL, but I hope it is not! I've red many articles on this, but non of them was dealing with "sections of site" (described bellow). I am programming a new application platform in laravel/php and I am still not 100% convinced… >>> More

Related posts about functions

helper functions as static functions or procedural functions?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
i wonder if one should create a helper function in a class as a static function or just have it declared as a procedural function? i tend to think that a static helper function is the right way to go cause then i can see what kind of helper function it is eg. Database::connect(), File::create(). what… >>> More
Static functions vs const functions

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm looking at a member function int funct(int x) const; And I'm wondering if static int funct(int x); would be better. If a member function doesn't use any of the member variables should it be static. Are there any things that would discourage this? >>> More
Delphi 2010 Wide functions vs. String functions

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We're currently converting a Delphi 2007 project to Delphi 2010. We were already using Unicode (via WideStrings and TNT Unicode Controls). I was expecting to replace all Wide functions, e.g. WideUpperCase, with their equivalent, e.g. UpperCase, but they do not work the same way. For example, WideUpperCase… >>> More
Actionscript/Flex - Is it possible to dynamically extend an object, modify functions, add functions

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I know this question might be frowned upon, but actionscript is a dynamic language similar to javascript and in javascript I can take an object from a library written by someone else and dynamically (at runtime) add/remove/modify functions, properties, prototypes etc. this is kind of like dynamically… >>> More
Doxygen ignoring inherited functions, when class inherits privately but the functions declared publi

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Sorry for long winded title, this makes a lot more sense with an example. Suppose we have a class A: class A { public: void someFunction(); void someOtherFunction(); }; And another class that privately inherits from A. However, we re-declare one of the inherited functions as… >>> More