Talk:Decimal separator
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 | On 26 June 2026, it was proposed that this article be moved from Decimal separator to Digit grouping and decimal separator. The result of the discussion was not moved. |
1.234.567'89
Does nobody use the raised comma or the apostrophe to seperate the unit form the first decimal? --Error (talk) 02:30, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
- That's correct; nobody uses it. Teemu Leisti (talk) 11:47, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
- we use it in Spain 2A02:9130:1A9:8A74:7DE4:4472:2BDA:DC33 (talk) 06:14, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
Digit grouping
This section of the article claims that in countries (basically the Chinese culturosphere) which have numerals which go up in 10000s, the separator divides groups of four digits. Although this would be obviously the rational way to do it, at least in Japan this claim is totally false. It is essentially never done (with the possible exception of rational foreigners); the commas are put every three digits, and people perform these amazing power conversions in their heads, to read for example 100,000,000 as 'ichi-oku' (i.e. one ... 10^8) You will even see large amounts of money written in units of, say 10万 (10...10^4 : i.e. 10^5), and the numbers will be written as 12,340, (i.e. 12 340 00000 = 1 234 000 000), leaving the comma before 10^(3+5)). If someone can confirm practice in Korean or Chinese, we can probably replace this. Imaginatorium (talk) 10:03, 3 July 2014 (UTC)
Just a followup: Chinese WP, via Google translate because my knowledge of Chinese is very restricted (though nonzero), in Chinese the separation by four digits is *sometimes* done. Imaginatorium (talk) 10:12, 3 July 2014 (UTC)
- I modified that part. As far as I know 4-digit grouping is not that common in China. To convince myself I just browsed through a several Chinese wikipedia pages that contain large numbers and digits are grouped by 3. But we could definitely use an input on that. Now I know for a fact that 4-digit grouping is never done in South Korea (and presumably North) and although there have been suggestions that 4-digit grouping would make sense, that is only speaking in theory. Now since I cannot find a suitable source for East Asian countries maybe I should remove it, but I thought the info that those languages count by myriads is useful and since this page has been spreading misinformation for some time I just changed the sentence to the opposite. If people can find a good citation they can remove that tag, alternatively if they choose to remove the whole sentence I am OK with that. PS: on the kanji separator comment above, similar stuff happens in Korea as well, but I do not see them as grouping characters. It is just another way of writing: the equivalent of "thirty-seven million and five hundred twelve thousand fifty" as "37 million 512 thousand 50" it does not happen in English, but it does in those languages. IdentityCrisis (talk) 20:53, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- In Chinese,
1234567890is read as12亿3456万7890, so four-digit grouping like12 3456 7890is theoretically the most suitable for Chinese. However, the Chinese national standard GB/T 15835-2011 "General rules for writing numerals in public texts", item 5.1.1 states that three-digit grouping should be used for large numbers, separated by either commas or spaces. They are respectively called 千分撇 (thousands-separating comma) and 千分空 (thousands-separating space). --Yejianfei (talk) 01:30, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
Spain
Spanish Real Academia Española (RAE) recommend using a thin space as thousands separator, and a dot as decimal separator.
Usage of comma as decimal separator is discouraged, but also accepted, since using a space as thousand separator disambiguates its meaning. A dot is preferred to align with international standards.
However, this official rule is often not applied. Most people don't know about it or don't like it. Also it is common to find contradicting information (like this Wikipedia article, at the time of writing).
I think it would be nice to at least note in the article that there are conflicting versions and point to the official vs. popular formats.
Sources:
- Diccionario panhispánico de dudas: números
- Ortografía de la lengua española
- 20 minutos: Los números no se escriben como crees: la RAE explica cómo se hace y Arturo Pérez-Reverte da su versión
Gimix3 (talk) 11:02, 3 November 2023 (UTC)
- That seems reasonable, and much of the above text could be used as-is, other than Wikipedia doesn't use contraction like "don't", the entire comment about "Most people" isn't encyclopedically relevant, and the citations would need to be done inline. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 06:54, 4 November 2023 (UTC)
- I can assure as mathematics high school teacher that a high percentage of the population uses the raised comma (0'23). 2A02:9130:1A9:8A74:7DE4:4472:2BDA:DC33 (talk) 06:20, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- The (thin) space as thousands separator is not a Spanish peculiarity. It is mandated by the SI, a standard respected more or less world-wide. Joe vom Titan (talk) 12:02, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
V (Vlang)
The V language can use the underscore (_) as a separator. However, it was summarily blocked from inclusion by certain opposing editors. Arguably unfair special new criteria or language preferences are imposed, beyond having a Wikipedia page and notability.
V, based on TIOBE and GitHub rankings, is verifiably about or more popular than Rebol, Red, D, OCaml, and Zig, which were languages placed in the article unchallenged and without abrasive reversions. Wukuendo (talk) 08:04, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
- Central discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Computing#Significance_of_V_(Vlang)_and_Pony. Kindly keep it there rather than copy/pasting comments all over the place. MrOllie (talk) 13:32, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
Table and condensing redundant information
This article presents the same information in at least three different formats: the map, the lists in Decimal_separator#Conventions_worldwide, and the table in Decimal separator#Examples of use. It would help with consistency to condense all the information into a single table, with rows like this:
| Country | Decimal separator | Digit group separator | Digit grouping | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Canada (English)
|
full stop | space | thousands | 1234567.89 | In official use |
| Canada (French)
|
comma | space | thousands | 1234567,89 | |
 India
|
full stop | comma or space | Indian | 12,34,567.89 1234567.89 |
|
 Indonesia
|
comma | full stop | thousands | 1.234.567,89 | |
 Iran
|
Eastern Arabic | Eastern Arabic | thousands | ١٬٢٣٤٬٥٦٧٫٨٩ | |
 Japan
|
full stop | comma | thousands | 1,234,567.89 | |
 Spain
|
comma | full stop | thousands | 1,234,567.89 | An apostrophe was historically used as the decimal separator; this is considered inadvisable according to the RAE and CSIC. |
Or, just cut everything but the table in Decimal separator#Examples of use. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 22:24, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
Requested move 26 June 2026
- The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
The result of the move request was: not moved. Overwhelming consensus to not move. (non-admin closure) Robloxguest3 (talk)
02:47, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Decimal separator → Digit grouping and decimal separator – Article describes two closely related topics. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 22:27, 26 June 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 21:41, 3 July 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. –Maltazarian ᚾparleyinvestigateᛅ 01:30, 11 July 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. BilledMammal (talk) 02:23, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
- Oppose: (changed from 'Comment') This is a very clumsy suggestion. I think it would be better to use something like "Decimal number format", which would surely be more immediately recognisable. (Later...) For now at least, I think the current title is clear and simple, and I am not persuaded that a change would help. Imaginatorium (talk) 16:14, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- "Decimal formats"? Would still require much restructuring of the article, but the proposal would require more. NebY (talk) 09:47, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Oppose, grouping is modified by the separators; they are therefore still the primary thing being discussed in the article ~ oklopfer (💬) 13:06, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- What's a neutral way to describe the digit-group separators? –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 16:32, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- "digit separators" is a far lesser-used synonym for "decimal separators", but is still certainly used. But what do you mean by "neutral"? ~ oklopfer (💬) 16:39, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Not biased toward thousands-based rather than Indian-style. I think "Digit separator" sounds better. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 16:40, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Decimal really just means of or relating to base-10, of which the Indian-style system still certainly is. We even state this for clarity in Indian numbering system § Multiples.
- I have no objections to digit separator, but do have concerns about COMMONNAME. ~ oklopfer (💬) 17:10, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Not biased toward thousands-based rather than Indian-style. I think "Digit separator" sounds better. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 16:40, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- "digit separators" is a far lesser-used synonym for "decimal separators", but is still certainly used. But what do you mean by "neutral"? ~ oklopfer (💬) 16:39, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- What's a neutral way to describe the digit-group separators? –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 16:32, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Oppose The article is really about the decimal separator. The digital group stuff is really more of a footnote to clarify what the decimal mark is not. I'd prefer to reduce it to a sentence, and spin the grouping stuff into a separate article, rather than awkwardly forcing a big clumsy title. Walrasiad (talk) 03:11, 4 July 2026 (UTC)
- Move to Decimal number format. Group separators and decimal separators are best discussed together, as we do in this article. Joe vom Titan (talk) 12:09, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: The article also has a section about representation of non-decimal numbers (see the section "In non-base-10 numbering systems"). So it covers both the separation of integer digits from non-integer fractional digits and the digit grouping scheme for both decimal and non-decimal numbers. — BarrelProof (talk) 15:53, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- Strong oppose: The title works perfectly fine. If it wasn’t broken in the first place, why should we “fix” it?
- OMGShay 92 (talk) 11:50, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Structural problems
The article currently has structural problems. Different sections hold redundant information. Digit grouping in programming is mentioned in constructed languages and digit grouping sections.
We should either put digit grouping back into a separate article, so each article can focus on its own subject, or tie digit grouping better into the article. The title change suggested is June seemed rather sensible. Maybe "Decimal separator and digit grouping" since decimal separator is the more important topic while digit grouping is not done as often. Then we could just split up digit grouping over the article and treat it together with decimal separators. ~2026-41888-44 (talk) 07:16, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
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