Bug 136839 - wrong formatting of currency when using Dutch (Belgium)
Summary: wrong formatting of currency when using Dutch (Belgium)
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Eike Rathke
URL:
Whiteboard: target:7.2.0
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-09-17 09:46 UTC by Roeland
Modified: 2021-04-01 10:42 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
current situation (33.18 KB, image/png)
2020-09-17 09:46 UTC, Roeland
Details

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Description Roeland 2020-09-17 09:46:55 UTC
Created attachment 165614 [details]
current situation

I tried to format numbers as currency in Calc. As I live in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium I wanted to use the format option Dutch (Belgium) or Nederlands (België). If I use this, the euro sign is placed after the number. This is not correct. As in the Netherlands (where format is correct..) the currency symbol is placed before the number.

For those who can read Dutch, these are the official rules:

https://taaladvies.net/taal/advies/vraag/1178
Comment 1 Ming Hua 2020-09-18 17:09:29 UTC
Looking at the locale data for Dutch (Belgium), it seems the currency symbol is indeed put after the numbers in the format:
https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/i18npool/source/localedata/data/nl_BE.xml?r=8453f6e5#89

However I don't speak Dutch and can't read the official rules provided by the reporter.

@Eike, I think you may be interested in this one.
Comment 2 Roeland 2020-09-19 09:35:23 UTC
A quick translation of these rules:

Currency symbols, such as the symbols for the British pound (£), the dollar ($), the Japanese yen (¥) and the euro (€), are placed before the stated amount in the Dutch language area, with a space after the currency symbol. For example: € 26.37; £ 896.12. This applies both in plain text and in lists or tables.

Flanders is part of the Dutch language area, so these rules apply to how we use currency symbols in Dutch (BE).
Comment 3 Ming Hua 2020-09-19 10:19:51 UTC
(In reply to Roeland from comment #2)
> A quick translation of these rules:
[translation snipped]

It's going to be Eike's call, but my take -- for whatever it's worth -- is that the content of that rules page doesn't matter much, since I trust you on this simple "symbol before or after numbers" issue, and even I don't, there are plenty of translation tools on the web.  What matters is how authorative/official that page is.  Does Belgium government have an administrative office for such things?  If not, which organization is responsible for such rules, and are they widely accepted by the people?  In my opinion these are more important things and can't be easily inferred from a single webpage.
Comment 4 Roeland 2020-09-19 10:31:45 UTC
Hi Ming Hua. Taaladvies (language advice) is set up bij the Taalunie (Language Union). The Taalunie sets the rules for de Dutch speaking world (Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname).

These rules are endorsed by both governments and used as guidance in any text written in Dutch.
Comment 5 Roeland 2020-09-19 10:44:40 UTC
To read more about the Taalunie see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Language_Union
Comment 6 Xisco Faulí 2021-03-31 14:45:55 UTC
@Cor, I thought you might be interested in this issue or you might know someone who is
Comment 7 Eike Rathke 2021-04-01 09:19:49 UTC
While many multiple languages per country follow the country's rule, this one seems not. See also https://icu4c-demos.unicode.org/icu-bin/locexp?d_=en&_=nl_BE
Comment 8 Commit Notification 2021-04-01 10:39:22 UTC
Eike Rathke committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/a66653805782df67431c462bf8f890a154066cf0

Resolves: tdf#136839 {nl-BE} leading currency symbol

It will be available in 7.2.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.