How to specify the number of decimal places in PowerShell Output

PowerShell does not have any number formatting built into it. For this reason, we have to use a little bit of .NET to make some changes. Let’s say you have the number 45.54321 and you only want to display the first 2 decimal places. Here is the code.

$Num = 45.54321

"{0:N2}" -f $Num

45.54

The first zero is an index number (You will see how this works in a minute.) The N tells us what type of data we are formatting. I Borrowed the below chart from this Microsoft article.

Name	Specifier	Description
Currency	C	The value is displayed as currency, using the precision specifier to indicate the number of decimal places to be displayed.
Decimal	D	The value is displayed using the number of digits in the precision specifier; if needed, leading zeroes are added to the beginning of the number.
Percentage	P	The value is multiplied by 100 and displayed as a percentage. The precision specifier indicates the number of decimal places to be displayed.
Hexadecimal	X	The value is displayed as a hexadecimal number. The precision specifier indicates the number of characters to be displayed, with leading

The number 2 tells us how many decimal places to use.

Let’s go back to that index number. Give this a try.

$Num = 45.54321, 36.75256, 65.34255

"{0:N2}","{1:N2}","{2:N2}" -f $Num

45.54 36.75 65.34

We can also format this information as currency.

$Num = 45.54321, 36.75256, 65.34255

"{0:C2}","{1:C2}","{2:C2}" -f $Num

$45.54 $36.75 $65.34

Comments

Unknown said…

Here is my problem. I'm trying to sum multiple $ amounts from into a singular total amount. The issue is the data I’m starting with has no decimal point. First 7 digits are dollars with left pad zero’s last 2 digits are cents. How would I sum these into a singular total with the original formatting?

Below are 6 different amounts using (7,2) format as each number
000000025 000001000 000283711 000025000 037000054 000000017
.25 + 10 + 2837.11 + 250 + 370000.54 + .17

Original Data I have to break apart and sum is listed below.
000000025000001000000283711000025000037000054000000017

My total should look like this:
037309807

Any Ideas as to how I would go about this?

August 28, 2015 at 12:15 PM

Jason Yoder, MCT said…

Matt,

Check out this posting.
http://www.mctexpert.blogspot.com/2015/08/string-manipulationcustom-problem.html

August 28, 2015 at 1:59 PM

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