Change NSNumberFormatter's negative format from (xxx.xx) to -xxx.xx

Question

I want to change my NSNumberformatter from displaying negative numbers with parenthesis around them to putting the minus sign in front (or whatever the localized standard is). I would assume I could do this with setNegativeFormat: but reading Apple's oh so thorough docs I am left scratching my head: setNegativeFormat: Sets the format the receiver uses to display negative values. ``` - (void)setNegativeFormat:(NSString *)aFormat ``` Parameters aFormat A string that specifies the format for negative values. Availability Available in iPhone OS 2.0 and later. See Also – negativeFormat Declared In NSNumberFormatter.h what are my options for aFormat?!? C'mon Doc Writers, would a link here kill you? edit: for what it's worth here's the declaration: ``` NSNumberFormatter *currencyFormatter = [[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init]; [currencyFormatter setNumberStyle:NSNumberFormatterCurrencyStyle]; ``` It's important for me to retain the localized currency symbol & decimal places whatever they may be…

Accepted Answer

If you take a look at the "Format Strings" section in the Data Formatting Programming Guide For Cocoa:

The format string uses the format patterns from the Unicode Technical Standard #35 (this reference is to version tr35-6; formatters for Mac OS X v10.4 use version tr35-4).

Edit:

If you want to set a format string based on currencies, you can use the `¤` character, for example:

```
[formatter setFormat:@"¤#,##0.00"];
```

This will add the currency symbol for the current localization in place of the `¤` character.

Therefore, applying the same concept to the negative format string:

```
[formatter setFormat:@"-¤#,##0.00"];
```

This will also apply the currency symbol in place of the `¤` for the current localization.

Change NSNumberFormatter's negative format from (xxx.xx) to -xxx.xx

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