# Euro dopers , gotta currency conversion prob **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2006, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989 "2006-11-11T09:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/1 "2006-11-11T09:03:23Z")
I downloaded some software from a german company , thats worked quite well on my palm and now I am going to pay for the licensced version. On the website that the company has for paying the dosh , the quoted price was 19,95 And when I plugged that into a currency converter online , 28 hundred bucks canadian was not a nice surprise , but plugging the same number in with the decimal instead of the comma, it came out to just about 30 dollars canadian. [nova media](http://www.novamedia.de/e_pages/e_produkte_palm_mhs.html) So did I do the conversion properly and it is 30 dollars CAD , or was the first figure right. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/2 "2006-11-11T09:31:48Z")
19,95 is how most European countries write 19.95. They use a comma instead of a decimal point. The currecny converter site you used (was it [XE.com](http://XE.com)?) obviously doesn’t recognise that. I just tried converting “19,95” euros to Canadian dollars and it came back with “1,995.00 EUR = 2,918.76 CAD”. I have no idea why it thinks that “19,95” is actually “1,995”, but anyway, it should be just under $30, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/3 "2006-11-11T12:15:30Z")
For the reason above, we were taught in school (here in the UK) not to use commas when writing down long strings of digits. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/4 "2006-11-11T13:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] For the reason above, we were taught in school (here in the UK) not to use commas when writing down long strings of digits. [/QUOTE] Yes - were you taught the same as me, to put no commas but to group digits into threes, so as to still indicate the place value of thousands/millions/billions, with slight spaces between? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/5 "2006-11-11T15:36:58Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Yes - were you taught the same as me, to put no commas but to group digits into threes, so as to still indicate the place value of thousands/millions/billions, with slight spaces between? [/QUOTE] Just like that, not 1,999,999 but 1 999 999 for example. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/6 "2006-11-11T19:05:44Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] Just like that, not 1,999,999 but 1 999 999 for example. [/QUOTE] Don’t do that either It could turn up as 1 and it could raise an error ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/7 "2006-11-11T19:06:22Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Don’t do that either It could turn up as 1 and it could raise an error [/QUOTE] No, that’s only when writing by hand. No gaps when typing. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/8 "2006-11-12T08:58:18Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] 19,95 is how most European countries write 19.95. They use a comma instead of a decimal point. The currecny converter site you used (was it [XE.com](http://XE.com)?) obviously doesn’t recognise that. I just tried converting “19,95” euros to Canadian dollars and it came back with “1,995.00 EUR = 2,918.76 CAD”. I have no idea why it thinks that “19,95” is actually “1,995”, but anyway, it should be just under $30, yes. [/QUOTE] Sorry for delay in replying , but first thanks for the confirmation, and second it was XE that did the erroneous currency conversion, first one to come up in google. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euro-dopers-gotta-currency-conversion-prob/379989/9 "2006-11-12T09:17:47Z")
Actually, the first one to come up in Google is [Google](http://www.google.ca/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial_s&hl=en&q=19%2C95+euros+in+canadian+dollars&meta=&btnG=Google+Search). It seems to understand the whole comma/decimal thing, even when I try to [fake it out](http://www.google.ca/search?hs=5kV&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial_s&q=19%2C950.50+euros+in+canadian+dollars&btnG=Search&meta=). 🙂