Can I get the standard currency format to use a negative sign instead of parentheses?

Question

There are many places in my project where I try to display currency with the built-in {0:C} currency format. If the number is negative, it surrounds the value in parentheses. I want it to use a negative sign instead.

My web.config has culture set to auto, and it resolves to en-US.

The ideal solution would be some global web.config or other setting that would make the {0:C} display the negative sign for the en-US culture, but I'm open to other, less awesome solutions as well.

Answer 1

You have to specify the correct NumberFormatInfo.CurrencyNegativePattern which is probably 1.

Decimal dec = new Decimal(-1234.4321); CultureInfo culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US"); culture.NumberFormat.CurrencyNegativePattern = 1;  String str = String.Format(culture, "{0:C}", dec); Console.Write(str); 

demo: http://ideone.com/HxSqT

output:

-$1,234.43 

Answer 2

I think a combination of the answers here will get you closer to what you want.

protected void Application_BeginRequest() {     var ci = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US");      if (Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DisplayName == ci.DisplayName)     {         ci = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");         ci.NumberFormat.CurrencyNegativePattern = 1;         Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci;         Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = ci;     } } 

If you want to not have any code that deals with a single culture like this... I believe you need to build your own culture... Check this Question