Unix / Linux: Bash Number Currency Formatting Thousands Grouping Separator

I have a number stored in a shell variable called x="240570.578". I would like to print $x as 2,40,570.57. How do I replace the number with their currency format under bash shell scripts?

The echo statement can not be used to format numbers under bash / ksh shell. You need to use printf command to format and print data according to FORMAT.

Syntax

The syntax is:

printf "%'.2f" var

OR

printf "%'.2d" var

OR

printf "Total Rs.%'.2f" var

OR

printf "Total $.%'.2f" var

The ' act as a field and printing modifiers for decimal conversions, the thousands grouping separator is applied to the integer portion of the output according to the current LC_NUMERIC. Run the locale program to check current settings for LC_NUMERIC:

 
locale
 

Sample outputs:

LANG=en_IN
LANGUAGE=en_IN:en
LC_CTYPE="en_IN"
LC_NUMERIC="en_IN"
LC_TIME="en_IN"
LC_COLLATE="en_IN"
LC_MONETARY="en_IN"
LC_MESSAGES="en_IN"
LC_PAPER="en_IN"
LC_NAME="en_IN"
LC_ADDRESS="en_IN"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_IN"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_IN"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_IN"
LC_ALL=

I've setup LC_ALL and LANG as follows in bash. You need to put the following lines in your ~/.bashrc and/or ~/.profile files:

 
export LC_ALL=en_IN.UTF-8
export LANG=en_IN.UTF-8
export LANGUAGE=en_IN.UTF-8
 

Examples

Type the following commands:

 
x="240570.578"
printf "%'.2f\n" $x
printf "Total $%'.2f\n" $x
printf "Total INR.%'.2f\n" $x
 

Sample outputs:

2,40,570.58
Total $2,40,570.58
Total INR.2,40,570.58

Recommended readings

man printf
man 3 printf
man local

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