Java String.format with currency symbol

Question

There is some existing code of the follow form which is used for format numerical values:

String.format( pattern, value )

Note that I cannot change the code itself - I can only change the format pattern supplied to the code.

What is the format pattern to output a currency symbol for the default locale? Essentially, I want to achieve the following output:

String.format( "...", 123 )  => $ 123

Answer 1

No need to reinvent the wheel. DecimalFormat comes with currency support:

String output = DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance().format(123.45);

This also comes with full locale support by optionally passing in a Locale:

String output = DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.GERMANY).format( 123.45);

Here's a test:

System.out.println(DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance().format( 123.45) );
System.out.println(DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.GERMANY).format( 123.45)) ;

Output:

$123.45
123,45 €