How can I parse a string with a comma thousand separator to a number?

Question

I have 2,299.00 as a string and I am trying to parse it to a number. I tried using parseFloat, which results in 2. I guess the comma is the problem

Answer 1

This is a simplistic unobtrusive wrapper around the parseFloat function.

function parseLocaleNumber(str) {
  // Detect the user's locale decimal separator:
  var decimalSeparator = (1.1).toLocaleString().substring(1, 2);
  // Detect the user's locale thousand separator:
  var thousandSeparator = (1000).toLocaleString().substring(1, 2);
  // In case there are locales that don't use a thousand separator
  if (thousandSeparator.match(/\d/))
    thousandSeparator = '';

  str = str
    .replace(new RegExp(thousandSeparator, 'g'), '')
    .replace(new RegExp(decimalSeparator), '.')

  return parseFloat(str);
}