PHP Conference Nagoya 2025

number_format

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

number_formatFormat a number with grouped thousands

Description

number_format(
    float $num,
    int $decimals = 0,
    ?string $decimal_separator = ".",
    ?string $thousands_separator = ","
): string

Formats a number with grouped thousands and optionally decimal digits using the rounding half up rule.

Parameters

num

The number being formatted.

decimals

Sets the number of decimal digits. If 0, the decimal_separator is omitted from the return value. As of PHP 8.3.0, when the value is negative, num is rounded to decimals significant digits before the decimal point. Prior to PHP 8.3.0, negative values were ignored and handled the same as 0.

decimal_separator

Sets the separator for the decimal point.

thousands_separator

Sets the thousands separator.

Return Values

A formatted version of num.

Changelog

Version Description
8.3.0 Added handling of negative values for decimals.
8.0.0 Prior to this version, number_format() accepted one, two, or four parameters (but not three).
7.2.0 number_format() was changed to not being able to return -0, previously -0 could be returned for cases like where num would be -0.01.

Examples

Example #1 number_format() Example

For instance, French notation usually use two decimals, comma (',') as decimal separator, and space (' ') as thousand separator. The following example demonstrates various ways to format a number:

<?php

$number
= 1234.56;

// english notation (default)
$english_format_number = number_format($number);
// 1,235

// French notation
$nombre_format_francais = number_format($number, 2, ',', ' ');
// 1 234,56

$number = 1234.5678;

// english notation without thousands separator
$english_format_number = number_format($number, 2, '.', '');
// 1234.57

?>

Example #2 A negative value for decimals

As of PHP 8.3.0, a negative value for decimals is used to round the number of significant digits before the decimal point.

<?php
$number
= "1234.5678";
var_dump(number_format($number, -1));
var_dump(number_format($number, -2));
var_dump(number_format($number, -3));
?>

The above example will output:

string(5) "1,230"
string(5) "1,200"
string(5) "1,000"

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 7 notes

up
423
thomas at weblizards dot de
15 years ago
It's not explicitly documented; number_format also rounds:

<?php
$numbers
= array(0.001, 0.002, 0.003, 0.004, 0.005, 0.006, 0.007, 0.008, 0.009);
foreach (
$numbers as $number)
print
$number."->".number_format($number, 2, '.', ',')."<br>";
?>

0.001->0.00
0.002->0.00
0.003->0.00
0.004->0.00
0.005->0.01
0.006->0.01
0.007->0.01
0.008->0.01
0.009->0.01
up
8
info at ensostudio dot ru
2 years ago
Note: use NumberFormatter to convert in human-readable format instead user function from comments:
<?php
echo NumberFormatter::create('en', NumberFormatter::SPELLOUT)->format(12309); // twelve thousand three hundred nine
echo NumberFormatter::create('ru', NumberFormatter::SPELLOUT)->format(12307.5); // двенадцать тысяч триста семь целых пять десятых
?>
up
38
james at bandit dot co.nz
15 years ago
Outputs a human readable number.

<?php
# Output easy-to-read numbers
# by james at bandit.co.nz
function bd_nice_number($n) {
// first strip any formatting;
$n = (0+str_replace(",","",$n));

// is this a number?
if(!is_numeric($n)) return false;

// now filter it;
if($n>1000000000000) return round(($n/1000000000000),1).' trillion';
else if(
$n>1000000000) return round(($n/1000000000),1).' billion';
else if(
$n>1000000) return round(($n/1000000),1).' million';
else if(
$n>1000) return round(($n/1000),1).' thousand';

return
number_format($n);
}
?>

Outputs:

247,704,360 -> 247.7 million
866,965,260,000 -> 867 billion
up
6
Jeroen de Bruijn [NL]
19 years ago
If you want to display a number ending with ,- (like 200,-) when there are no decimal characters and display the decimals when there are decimal characters i use:

function DisplayDouble($value)
{
list($whole, $decimals) = split ('[.,]', $value, 2);
if (intval($decimals) > 0)
return number_format($value,2,".",",");
else
return number_format($value,0,".",",") .",-";
}
up
8
Theo Diem
21 years ago
formatting numbers may be more easy if u use number_format function.

I also wrote this :
function something($number)
{
$locale = localeconv();
return number_format($number,
$locale['frac_digits'],
$locale['decimal_point'],
$locale['thousands_sep']);
}

hope this helps =)
[]'s
up
20
MarcM
18 years ago
For Zero fill - just use the sprintf() function

$pr_id = 1;
$pr_id = sprintf("%03d", $pr_id);
echo $pr_id;

//outputs 001
-----------------

$pr_id = 10;
$pr_id = sprintf("%03d", $pr_id);
echo $pr_id;

//outputs 010
-----------------

You can change %03d to %04d, etc.
up
15
stm555 at hotmail dot com
19 years ago
I ran across an issue where I wanted to keep the entered precision of a real value, without arbitrarily rounding off what the user had submitted.

I figured it out with a quick explode on the number before formatting. I could then format either side of the decimal.

<?php
function number_format_unlimited_precision($number,$decimal = '.')
{
$broken_number = explode($decimal,$number);
return
number_format($broken_number[0]).$decimal.$broken_number[1];
}
?>
To Top