Decimal markers

Part 2 of XML Schemas says nothing absolute about the format of a decimal marker. The only sentence I could find of relevance is in 3.2.5.1, which states "decimal has a lexical representation consisting of a finite-length sequence of decimal digits separated by a period as a decimal indicator" This shows that only a period may be used as a decimal marker, and that no commas may be used within integers to identify subdivisions.

At a meeting of the UK e-business Data Harmonization Group yesterday two issues were raised on this point:

1) Should there be a standardized function to convert from normal accounting practice formats such as 1,234,567.89 to a decimal value (and vice versa)

2) Should there be a standardized function to convert from a UK/US style number to a European style one, which uses spaces to separate subsets of figures and commas as the decimal marker, e.g. 1 234 567,89, and from a decimal value to a European style representation of the same.

Whilst we can define such functions for use within the business community they would seem to be of such wide relevance as to be worth considering adding as a part of the main language.

Martin Bryan
Chair, CEN/ISSS Defining and Maintaining Semantic and Datatypes working group

Received on Friday, 30 June 2000 03:40:08 UTC