Standard for decimal numbers in XML

[DustWolf]

Hello,

I am wondering, what is the standard for including decimal numbers in
XML code? What determines what is the decimal delimiter and what can
be the grouping symbol?

I have just realized that Microsoft's parser decides that based on the
regional settings, invalidating most numbers sent in XML
internationally. Is this a bug or is it correct behaviour, based on
infsufficient information?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Martin Honnen]

I am wondering, what is the standard for including decimal numbers in
XML code? What determines what is the decimal delimiter and what can
be the grouping symbol?

XML in general does not know a number data type. You will have to look
at some XML applications. XSLT (1.0) for instance uses the number data
type from XPath 1.0 with '.' being the decimal delimiter and no grouping
symbol. That holds for all input to be parsed, for output XSLT has an
instruction xsl:decimat-format and a function format-number
<http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt#format-number>
that allows you to set various things like decimal separator, grouping
separator.

I have just realized that Microsoft's parser decides that based on the
regional settings, invalidating most numbers sent in XML
internationally. Is this a bug or is it correct behaviour, based on
infsufficient information?

Microsoft has several XML tools. MSXML 3 and later for instance have
XSLT 1.0 support and I am pretty sure they follow the specification as
explained above and do not parse input string to numbers based on
regional settings.
MSXML 4 and later also have XSD schema support and if you do schema
validation with MSXML then I am again pretty sure that '.' is the
decimal separator and regional settings are not used, the number
format(s) are defined by the W3C XML schema specification.
The Microsoft .NET framework also has XML support with XSLT 1.0, with
XSD schema validation.
Then there is XML support in SQL Server 2005.
Tell us more details on which Microsoft parser you are using for which
task, your description is too general to judge what is going on.

 

[usenet]

Hello,

I am wondering, what is the standard for including decimal numbers in
XML code? What determines what is the decimal delimiter and what can
be the grouping symbol?

I have just realized that Microsoft's parser decides that based on the
regional settings, invalidating most numbers sent in XML
internationally. Is this a bug or is it correct behaviour, based on
infsufficient information?

Thank you for your help.

XML Schema Part 2 defines the format of a decimal type to have a '.'
separator, and no groupings character. You can see the details at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#decimal

It may be as good a definition as any to use.

FWIW - A while back I heard customers say that they have had problems
interoperating with .NET applications running on German versions of
Windows, and so the problem you raise may be a common one.

HTH,

Pete.
--
=============================================
Pete Cordell
Tech-Know-Ware Ltd
for XML to C++ data binding visit
http://www.tech-know-ware.com/lmx/
http://www.codalogic.com/lmx/
=============================================

 

[Joe Kesselman]

http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#decimal
It may be as good a definition as any to use.

That would be my recommendation. Just record the information, using this
representation. (Or, if it really is a floating-point value, possibly,
one of the other common standard-for-computers representations such as
1.2E3)

If you want to display it differently for humans, deal with that when
you're rendering the information for display to humans.