With a browser, how do I know which decimal separator does the operating system use?

Question

I\'m developing a web application.

I need to display some decimal data correctly so that it can be copied and pasted into a certain GUI application that

Answer 1

Even if you knew what locale this "GUI Application" is running under, you still have to figure out how it is getting the current locale, and how it is determining the decimal separator.

i don't know how it is done on a Mac, but on Windows applications are supposed to interrogte the user's preferences set via the Control Panel. It's quite possible this mystery applicaiton is ignoring those settings, and using their own internal setup instead.

Or perhaps they're taking the current locale, and inferring the rest, rather than being told.

Even then, in english, numbers are given in groups of 3 digits, with a comma separating the groups. i.e.:

5,197,359,078

Unless the number was an integer that contains a phone number:

519-735-9078

Unless of course the number was an integer that contains an account number:

5197359078

In which case, you're back to hard-coded overridden logic.

Edit: Removed currency example, since currency has its own formatting rules.