Based on our in-country and online investigation, offline (physical) and online (e-commerce) stores are following proposed format and not the current format returned by CLDR (attached screenshots and pictures for reference). SARB (South Africa Reserve Bank) also shows decimal separator as Period (U+002E) (link). Based on our in-country investigation, the current format was more used in the past. The most recognizable format now is the proposed (Desired) format which bank statements / balances and majority of stores/businesses are following.
We are reaching out to check if currency format for en_ZA locale can be updated to be aligned with the currency format which ZA customers are used to.
Online store example:
List prices from some top most popular e-commerce websites in South Africa:
Based on the following links, it seems that Comma (U+002C) is the decimal separator and Space (U+0020) is the grouping separator for numbers in en-ZA officially, but in common usage the format from en-US (and other “en” formats) is often used, which have Period (U+002E) as the decimal separator and Comma (U+002C) as the grouping separator:
Currently CLDR returns thousand separator as Space (U+0020), and decimal separator as Comma (U+002C) for standard currency format in en_ZA locale.
Current Format
Desired Format
Decimal Separator
, (comma)
. (Period)
Thousand Separator
Space
, (comma)
CLDR source code: https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/main/en_ZA.xml#L241-L242
CLDR survey tool: https://st.unicode.org/cldr-apps/v#/en_ZA/Symbols/4ec3d1b99830ad07
Based on our in-country and online investigation, offline (physical) and online (e-commerce) stores are following proposed format and not the current format returned by CLDR (attached screenshots and pictures for reference). SARB (South Africa Reserve Bank) also shows decimal separator as Period (U+002E) (link). Based on our in-country investigation, the current format was more used in the past. The most recognizable format now is the proposed (Desired) format which bank statements / balances and majority of stores/businesses are following.
We are reaching out to check if currency format for en_ZA locale can be updated to be aligned with the currency format which ZA customers are used to.
Online store example:
List prices from some top most popular e-commerce websites in South Africa:
https://www.woolworths.co.za/cat/Women/Clothing/Dresses-Jumpsuits/Dresses/_/N-rxp5fp
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HmPy84U0RjYZHFRE2AFa9Rl2bUUvhkEk/view?usp=sharing
https://www.takealot.com/computers/mini-towers-28586
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LFn0bPN9b7BzMlpUh8weoOjTyX_2rNc8/view?usp=sharing
https://www.gumtree.co.za/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1faK0P1KmkvRytwjp2JcaHx1LDXbRvc8j/view?usp=sharing
Offline store examples:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MpT8XJoQyjwtnpxZ_MmtF7B_5zlgFT4I/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UAEFh9HGIkAzkfZ-6eFLEg--9TmeczKy/view?usp=sharing
Counter Examples
Based on the following links, it seems that Comma (U+002C) is the decimal separator and Space (U+0020) is the grouping separator for numbers in en-ZA officially, but in common usage the format from en-US (and other “en” formats) is often used, which have Period (U+002E) as the decimal separator and Comma (U+002C) as the grouping separator:
https://www.sadev.co.za/content/how-correctly-format-currency-south-africa
https://limn.co.za/2013/05/south-african-number-formats/
https://www.smartick.com/blog/other-contents/curiosities/decimal-separators/