Parsing localized numbers

Question

I'm trying to use NumberFormat to validate a string containing a formatted number but having a lot of problems. First, invalid strings are just ignored (same thing as http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=31&thread=157703)
Also in French, space is used as thousands separators, however if I use a string with space only only the thousands are parsed, i.e.:
String value = "1 234,45";
try {
   Number number = NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(Locale.FRENCH).parse(value);
System.out.println(number.floatValue());
} catch (ParseException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}The output:
1.0
Any help? Thanks!

Answer 1

With the NumberFormat, you will get an exception only if the very first character is not parseable. But you don't have to write your own parse routine, just do this:
import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;
public class number {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      try {
         DecimalFormatSymbols df = new DecimalFormatSymbols(Locale.FRENCH);
         df.setDecimalSeparator(',');
         df.setGroupingSeparator(' ');
         DecimalFormat NF=new DecimalFormat("#,###.##",df);
         String out=NF.format(-1234.56);
         System.out.println(out);
         ParsePosition PP=new ParsePosition(0);
         Number number = NF.parse(args[0],PP);
         if (PP.getIndex()!=args[0].length()) System.out.println("Parse Exception");
         System.out.println(number);
      } catch (Throwable exception) {
         exception.printStackTrace();
}V.V.