How to format a number 1000 as "1 000"

Question

I need a way to format numbers. I stored some numbers in my DB table, e.g. 12500, and would like to print them in this format 12 500 (so there is a space every 3 digits). Is there an elegant way to do this?

Answer 1

see: http://www.justskins.com/forums/format-number-with-comma-37369.html

there is no built in way to it ( unless you using Rails, ActiveSupport Does have methods to do this) but you can use a Regex like

formatted_n = n.to_s.reverse.gsub(/...(?=.)/,'\&,').reverse 

Answer 2

Activesupport uses this regexp (and no reverse reverse).

10000000.to_s.gsub(/(\d)(?=(\d\d\d)+(?!\d))/, "\\1 ") #=> "10 000 000"