Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 30568
South African locale number format uses comma instead of period for decimal point
Last modified: 2018-08-30 21:24:12 UTC
When the default langauge is set to English (South Africa) the default decimal point is a comma when it should be a period. See http://www.123hostnow.com/articles/LCID.asp?LCID=7177#SHOW for the correct format. Traditionally, I have always set my locale to English (UK), so this bug may have been in existance for a while. Additional Note: Whilst the 123HostNow site indicates the official date format for South Africa being YYYY/MM/DD, the actual common usage in the country is DD/MM/YYYY.
Added David Fraser to cc.
Hi Eike, according to this URL http://www.southafrica.co.za/forex/ South Africa uses a dot as decimal separator. Frank
Some comments: the LCID listing from the URL above just replicates the Windows regional settings. For the forex page Frank mentioned I would just guess that they use some English settings to display data, and I wouldn't rely on that. Note that http://oss.software.ibm.com/cvs/icu/~checkout~/locale/diff/main/af_ZA.html lists only Windows to use the separators you suggest, others don't and use decimal=, group=[space]. On the other hand, according to http://oss.software.ibm.com/cvs/icu/~checkout~/locale/diff/main/en_ZA.html, this is different from the en_ZA locale, where all systems use the suggested separators. So it seems we should change both, af_ZA and en_ZA, locale data to use decimal=. and group=, Is this correct? Btw: it seems a bit strange to me that according to Windows also the list/pattern separator should be a comma, in most cases it's different from other separators and a semicolon. For the date order mentioned please see http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=26462 respectively it's parent issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=22190, implementation now follows the official YYYY/MM/DD order.
*** Issue 31056 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 34559 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
On branch cws_src680_localedatafixes: i18npool/source/localedata/data/af_ZA.xml 1.7.18.1 i18npool/source/localedata/data/en_ZA.xml 1.5.18.1 Both use decimal separator '.' point and group separator ',' comma now.
Reopen to reassign.
Reassign to QA.
Restore status.
tk: Verified on branch cws_src680_localedatafixes
closed because fix available in OOo1.9m62
The official decimal separator for South Africa is a comma, however due to Windows having incorrect defaults until Windows 7, decimal points are in common use. A comma should NEVER be used as a thousands separator in South Africa. This post links to several official sources. https://sadev.co.za/content/how-correctly-format-currency-south-africa (THere is a SANS standard as well, can't quickly find the number)
To save the extra click, search for decimal separator in this document: http://www.gcis.gov.za/sites/default/files/editorial_styleguide_2011.pdf