Format negative amount of USD with a minus sign, not brackets (Java)

Question

How do I get NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance() to print negative USD currency values with a minus sign?

Answer 1

It requires a little tweaking of the DecimalFormat returned by NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance() to do it in a locale-independent manner. Here's what I did (tested on Android):

DecimalFormat formatter = (DecimalFormat)NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(); String symbol = formatter.getCurrency().getSymbol(); formatter.setNegativePrefix(symbol+"-"); // or "-"+symbol if that's what you need formatter.setNegativeSuffix(""); 

IIRC, Currency.getSymbol() may not return a value for all locales for all systems, but it should work for the major ones (and I think it has a reasonable fallback on its own, so you shouldn't have to do anything)

Answer 2

Here is one I always end up using either in a java class or via the fmt:formatNumber jstl tag:

DecimalFormat format = new DecimalFormat("$#,##0.00;$-#,##0.00"); String formatted = format.format(15.5); 

It always produces at least a $0.00 and is consistent when displayed. Also includes thousands seperators where needed. You can move the minus sign in front of the dollar sign if that is your requirement.