Formatting question : printing numbers with thousands separators ?

[Skip Montanaro]

    Fred> how do I print 246814345 as 246,814,345 (or 246 814 345) ?

I'm sure there are more clever ways, but this seems to work:

    def separate(n, sep=','):
        ln = list(str(n))
        ln.reverse()
        newn = []
        while len(ln) > 3:
            newn.extend(ln[:3])
            newn.append(sep)
            ln = ln[3:]
        newn.extend(ln)
        newn.reverse()
        return "".join(newn)

    >>> separate("2342342342344567")
    '2,342,342,342,344,567'
    >>> separate("2342342342344567", sep=' ')
    '2 342 342 342 344 567'
    >>> separate(5)
    '5'
    >>> separate(35)
    '35'
    >>> separate(235)
    '235'
    >>> separate(1235)
    '1,235'
    >>> separate(1235, ' ')
    '1 235'

-- 
Skip Montanaro (skip at pobox.com)
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