Negative number representation

[Jim Turner 0]

Does anyone know of any culture/language where the default negative number representation is not a minus sign preceding the number?

[Graham Bradshaw]

I think there must be some, since Windows locale information supports them. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb507201.aspx[^] and look at LOCALE_INEGSIGNPOSN and LOCALE_INEGNUMBER.

[Simon P Stevens]

Not a culture/language as such, but I've seen financial documents (P&L accounts etc) where negative numbers are either indicated by being placed in brackets (and no minus sign), or with a minus sign after the number.

Simon

[leppie]

Simon Stevens wrote:

negative numbers are either indicated by being placed in brackets (and no minus sign),

Or in RED :)

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[Simon P Stevens]

leppie wrote:

Or in RED

Well they might have been, but we didn't have colour printers :laugh:

Simon

[Tomz_KV]

When you say "number", you may automatically imply the Arabic numbers: 1, 2, 3... In other cultures, numbers are not expressed like this. Therefore, minus sign is not applicable. For Arabic numbers, in accounting, the negative numbers may be shown in red or in perentices without a minus sign.

TOMZ_KV

[Dy]

Don't know of a culture language that does that, but have seen users do it via the control panel (Region & Language options -> Customise)

- Dy

[Member 96]

Yes, the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, any country with accountants working in them. Accountants and accounting apps commonly display negative numbers like this ($5.50).

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[Roger Wright]

To ensure backward compatibility with VisiCalc you'll need to have the option to display negative amounts with the minus sign following the number. Of course, you'll also need to make your app run on CP/M. ;)

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