Parse a decimal value from a String in Ruby

Question

I have a Ruby String that contains decimal-containing numbers. What's the best way to convert this into a decimal (fixed-point)?

"Best" means:

...in roughly that order.

Craig Walker · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-30 21:27:54Z

14

(Found it myself after a bit of digging)

BigDecimal is the standard Ruby fixed-point type, and it's constructor takes a String and handles the parsing for you:

BigDecimal.new("123.45")

answered Jan 30, 2010 at 21:27

Craig Walker

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2 Comments

You actually cant for X number of days (now elapsed)... besides I figured I'd give others a chance to contribute.

BigDecimal.new is deprecated; use BigDecimal() method instead.