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Question: Comma vs. Decimal

narfi

narfi

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Narfi Hungry Willem
I am confused why lots of places in the forums here commas and decimals are used the opposite of what i am accustomed to. It has always been my understanding that a large number uses commas to seperate each 3sets of numbers.

For Example: 100,000 = 100K

I have always understood that a decimal separates whole numbers from partial numbers.
For Example: $10.50 = Ten Dollars and Fifty Cents

There are lots of times where i see numbers here on the forums like 1.000 and 10,50 which dont match up to what im used to.

Are there different standards in different locations on the globe and Im just isolated enough (in Alaska) that i havent seen these used in this manner before? Or is it some sort of slang common to gaming or computers? (ive only played EU online, and almost no experience with social networking sites)

Any knowledge and information on this would be appreciated.

thanks,

narfi
 
In most of Europe we use comma as a decimal sign.
And dot as a thousand seperator.

Depending on who makes the post it can differ.

US will use : 1,000.00
Europe uses: 1.000,00

As long as you use only 2 digits for decimals there is no confusion.

See for a list of countries and what they use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point
 
Thanks thats what i suspected, just didnt know. I should have thought to use google or wikipedia... too tired i guess :)

thanks,

narfi
 
i'm in uk


and we use decimals and commas like you narfi i.e one thousand written as 1,00.00



It is confusing sometimes when I see posts with 1.00 written where they mean 1,00. The decimal should be a dot as international standard or if not a completely new symbol to represent a dot. Such a simple change can actually mean we understand each other correctly.
 
I am in the UK as well, and it confuses me when I see 1.001, as to me that means one point zero zero one, not one-thousand and one.

I have the hang of it now, but still need to do a double take sometime to be sure I have understood properly.

Given the importance of knowing the difference between the two figures it does seem strange that differing countries adopt differing standards.

An engineer in the UK asked to design something to withstand 1.001 tonnes by a person in a county using a "." instead of a "," will need to know for sure if it is one point zero zero one tonnes, or one-thousand and one tonnes, as there is a slight difference in what he might design..
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
i'm in uk

The decimal should be a dot as international standard or if not a completely new symbol to represent a dot. Such a simple change can actually mean we understand each other correctly.
Click to expand...

LOL :laugh:

The international ISO standaard is actually a dot as a thousand seperator and a comma as a dicimal seperator.
The Brittish changed that and put their 'standard' in the British empire and colonies. (US, India, HongKong, Australia, Africal colonies...) that is why its only used there.

Most countries that are using Miles instead of Kilometers are also using the British standard.
 
from wiki

"In France, the period was already in use in printing to make Roman numerals more readable, so the comma was chosen. Many other countries also chose to use the comma to mark the decimal units position.[2] It has been made standard by the ISO for international blueprints. However, English-speaking countries took the comma to separate sequences of three digits."


so I may be wrong but i don't think there is one ISO standard for numbers in general just blueprints.

The point I was making was would be simpler if everyone used the same system, maybe your right all countries should switch to your way DRDoom. At least that would be more understandable. Doesn't matter which system as long as it's universal. To avoid this argument of whose system should be made universal maybe a new symbol should be created then we all have to change i.e equal to everyone.
 
I don't think world wide standardisation will be soon.

It's hardly impossible to change a way of working after so long, just think about the software that should change alone. niether the countries that are using one of the standaard want to change, for the costs and the mistakes that will be made by ppl that are used to their system.

Same for the metric system vs the imperial system. It would be so much easier if everyone uses the same system. I don't say either one of them is better, but I assume that the metric system is much easier.

°C vs °F same thing.

etc...
 
date is another matter

in holland we use day/month/year

in the us and other countries they use month/day/year
 
SKULL said:
date is another matter

in holland we use day/month/year

in the us and other countries they use month/day/year
Click to expand...


Well that one is a no brainer the correct way is obviously day/month/year as it's logical progression of duration i.e. day is shortest, then month and year is longest.

there can be no sensible reason for using month/day/year , it's just absurd ! :D
 
SKULL said:
date is another matter

in holland we use day/month/year

in the us and other countries they use month/day/year
Click to expand...

lol, this is a good one :cool:
 
And to confuse things a little bit more.
According to international standard ISO8601 we should use YYYY-MM-DD when we write dates.

And for times

ISO 8601 uses the 24-hour clock system. The basic format is [hh][mm][ss] and the extended format is [hh]:[mm]:[ss].
 
on important papers we use letters too, not only numbers.

like this : 1.010 or 1,010 = one thousend and then
 
In Sweden you will probably see 1 000 000
Swedes "normally" uses a space rather than any , . '
 
Coachman said:
And to confuse things a little bit more.
According to international standard ISO8601 we should use YYYY-MM-DD when we write dates.
Click to expand...

This makes most sense actually, just as time from longest to shortest. if you sort on date this is the only notation that makes it cronological.
 
Lars Sebra said:
In Sweden you will probably see 1 000 000
Swedes "normally" uses a space rather than any , . '
Click to expand...

Swedes must be smarter than the rest of the world. That's a good choice.


DRDoom said:
This makes most sense actually, just as time from longest to shortest. if you sort on date this is the only notation that makes it cronological.
Click to expand...
Agreed, at first looks a bit odd as we're not used to it but it makes logical sense. I may actually start using that :)
 
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS is a format that can be used for queries in databases. Even Microsoft agrees on that! :)
 
DRDoom said:
The international ISO standaard is actually a dot as a thousand seperator and a comma as a dicimal seperator.
The Brittish changed that and put their 'standard' in the British empire and colonies. (US, India, HongKong, Australia, Africal colonies...) that is why its only used there.
Click to expand...

actually, the British Empire predates the ISO by some hundreds of years, so we didnt "change" anything and '.' is also used by China and Japan. ',' is a continental European thing. as i recall it the ISO standard allows either. in UK for official documents often you'll see spaces for thousands anyway (ie £1 000 000)

the US is just wierd with its dates and they really need to sort that out.
 
Usually I can figure out from the context which format is being used. The one that drives me crazy is some of the different date formats.
 
Rotrap said:
Usually I can figure out from the context which format is being used. The one that drives me crazy is some of the different date formats.
Click to expand...


Yes as long as its 05-13-2009 it makes since since there is no confusion there.
But if you see a date on a US mail like 06-04-2009 you can only guess. :) Fortunaltly most US ppl use the fulle month name instead of month number. This avoids confusion. ;)
 
Not only in Sweden, but also in Portugal, we separate thousands with spaces.
However, it is actually weird, and we don't seem to have strong rules concerning number punctuation. Decimal for sure are separated by a ",". It really pisses me off when i have to write an international paper and change all "," to "." in all my decimals. COncerning separations of thousands, we either do not use one, like in "1000", or use a dot like in "1.000", especially when the numbers start to be very long, as in "1.000.000". This is a system more common to be found in the financial world. However, in school, what used to be done was simply writing "1 000 000", and that's how you'll see it more often.

Now, who the heck uses this form of separating thousands? "1'000'000" Anyone? I'm sure i've seen it before.


Dates also always confuse me, as i'm used to dd/mm/yy. Yes and ºF instead of ºC, and inches instead of cm, and miles instead of kms... pounds instead of kg, and how in the world can a hamburger substitute a real meal? don't get me wrong, i still eat a few burgers during the month when i feel like it or just want something real fast, but a meal in a dish beats it everyday of the week!
 
Last edited:
Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France? Royale with cheese. Do you know why they call it a Royale with cheese?

Because of the metric system?

:loco:
S.

ps. sry, this came to my mind instantly when i read this :p
 
lofwyr said:
Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France? Royale with cheese. Do you know why they call it a Royale with cheese?

Because of the metric system?

:loco:
S.

ps. sry, this came to my mind instantly when i read this :p
Click to expand...

Talking about pounds, that has been banned from the Netherlands for the past fifty years or so. However, it is still used widely by people above thirty (and below!), commercials, shops and even the government.

I'm amazed by how quickly (5 years?) all the guldens, krones, marks, francs, lire, and what more is replaced by the euro. I rarely speak to someone now who calculateds euros to guldens. Everyone and his dog still use pond and ons.

As for the date confusing: I learned to write 06-jun-09 since working for an American compagny. Everyone working for that compagny will understand what date you mean. I must say that the YYYY-MM-DD sounds very logical. In one hunderd years the Dutch can be used to that.

:rolleyes::smash::rolleyes:
 
lofwyr said:
Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France? Royale with cheese. Do you know why they call it a Royale with cheese?

Because of the metric system?

:loco:
S.

ps. sry, this came to my mind instantly when i read this :p
Click to expand...

The line is from pulp fiction, they are obviously talking about a burger. I have no idea of what kind, never heard either one or the other names.

Same thing with euro, here ardorj. So used to euros, and whenever they talk me about escudos again or contos, i can't really figure out imediately how much that is.. seemed like it was a long time ago, but not really.. only 7 years.
 
"YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS" (sounds like Oracle :D) is the only proper format if you have e.g. log files and you want to quickly have a chronological sorted list of them.

Any other format just doesn't work.
 
Naifas Anaconda said:
The line is from pulp fiction, they are obviously talking about a burger. I have no idea of what kind, never heard either one or the other names.
Click to expand...

French ones. Why? Because the dialog includes a "Le BigMac" and Jules has been to Paris (maybe just to impress Vincent...).

In the other scene in that one room where Jules has his "spiritual moment" it's a Big Kahuna Burger (the Hawaiian burger). Just in case anyone actually cares...
 
endermigne said:
"YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS" (sounds like Oracle :D) is the only proper format if you have e.g. log files and you want to quickly have a chronological sorted list of them.

Any other format just doesn't work.
Click to expand...

I tried for some time to get everyone at work to use international date format in document titles for this reason, but of course they didn't listen to me :D
 
Naifas Anaconda said:
Now, who the heck uses this form of separating thousands? "1'000'000" Anyone? I'm sure i've seen it before.
Click to expand...

Probably countries where Eastern Arabic Numerals are used according to wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals


tried to find a number written in arabic as an example but no luck, found some interesting stuff on youtube but they were counting upto 10 in arabic. Google seems to convert this "100'000" into this "100 000" ...so nuck trying that either...
 
Big Kahuna Burger is not a real brand.

Tarantino made it up :cool:
 
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