Number

The NumberHelper contains convenience methods that enable display numbers in common formats in your views. These methods include ways to format currency, percentages, data sizes, format numbers to specific precisions and also to give you more flexibility with formating numbers.

All of these functions return the formated number; They do not automatically echo the output into the view.

currency

currency(mixed $number, string $currency= 'USD', $options = array())

This method is used to display a number in common currency formats (EUR,GBP,USD). Usage in a view looks like:

<?php echo $this->Number->currency($number,$currency); ?>

The first parameter, $number, should be a floating point number that represents the amount of money you are expressing. The second parameter is used to choose a predefined currency formatting scheme:

$currency 1234.56, formatted by currency type
EUR € 1.236,33
GBP £ 1,236.33
USD $ 1,236.33

The third parameter is an array of options for further defining the output. The following options are available:

Option

Description

before

The currency symbol to place before whole numbers ie. ‘$’

after

The currency symbol to place after decimal numbers ie. ‘c’. Set to boolean false to use no decimal symbol. eg. 0.35 => $0.35.

zero

The text to use for zero values, can be a string or a number. ie. 0, ‘Free!’

places

Number of decimal places to use. ie. 2

thousands

Thousands separator ie. ‘,’

decimals

Decimal separator symbol ie. ‘.’

negative

Symbol for negative numbers. If equal to ‘()’, the number will be wrapped with ( and )

escape

Should the output be htmlentity escaped? Defaults to true

If a non-recognized $currency value is supplied, it is prepended to a USD formatted number. For example:

<?php echo $this->Number->currency('1234.56', 'FOO'); ?>

//Outputs:
FOO 1,234.56

precision

precision (mixed $number, int $precision = 3)

This method displays a number with the specified amount of precision (decimal places). It will round in order to maintain the level of precision defined.

<?php echo $this->Number->precision(456.91873645, 2 ); ?>

//Outputs:
456.92

toPercentage

toPercentage(mixed $number, int $precision = 2)

Like precision(), this method formats a number according to the supplied precision (where numbers are rounded to meet the given precision). This method also expresses the number as a percentage and prepends the output with a percent sign.

<?php echo $this->Number->toPercentage(45.691873645); ?>

//Outputs:
45.69%

toReadableSize

toReadableSize(string $data_size)

This method formats data sizes in human readable forms. It provides a shortcut way to convert bytes to KB, MB, GB, and TB. The size is displayed with a two-digit precision level, according to the size of data supplied (i.e. higher sizes are expressed in larger terms):

echo $this->Number->toReadableSize(0);  // 0 Bytes
echo $this->Number->toReadableSize(1024); // 1 KB
echo $this->Number->toReadableSize(1321205.76); // 1.26 MB
echo $this->Number->toReadableSize(5368709120); // 5.00 GB

format

format (mixed $number, mixed $options=false)

This method gives you much more control over the formatting of numbers for use in your views (and is used as the main method by most of the other NumberHelper methods). Using this method might looks like:

$this->Number->format($number, $options);

The $number parameter is the number that you are planning on formatting for output. With no $options supplied, the number 1236.334 would output as 1,236. Note that the default precision is zero decimal places.

The $options parameter is where the real magic for this method resides.

  • If you pass an integer then this becomes the amount of precision or places for the function.
  • If you pass an associated array, you can use the following keys:
    • places (integer): the amount of desired precision
    • before (string): to be put before the outputted number
    • escape (boolean): if you want the value in before to be escaped
    • decimals (string): used to delimit the decimal places in a number
    • thousands (string): used to mark off thousand, millions, … places
echo $this->Number->format('123456.7890', array(
    'places' => 2,
    'before' => '¥ ',
    'escape' => false,
    'decimals' => '.',
    'thousands' => ','
));
// output '¥ 123,456.79'