Re: [Bug-datamash] Decimal separator

[Assaf Gordon]

Hello,

> On Jul 29, 2016, at 08:08, Maxime Jay-Allemand <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> I encountered a little trouble with the decimal separator using Datamash. The 
> default behaviour is that Datamash use the comma separator instead of the 
> point. Is there any way to change this behaviour before invoking Datamash 
> (options) ?

By default, 'datamash' uses the current locale's definition for decimal 
separator.
Based on your email domain (.fr) - perhaps your current locale is fr_FR.UTF-8 ?
In that case, 'datamash' would assume a comma is the decimal separator.

This can be observed with 'printf' (assuming these locales are installed on 
your machine):

    $ LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 env printf "%'f\n" 1.5
    1.500000
    $ LC_ALL=fr_FR.UTF-8 env printf "%'f\n" 1.5
    1,500000

> I am using Ubuntu 16.04, and  the current Datamash version is 1.0.7.
> 
> I found a simple workaround by setting the locale to C and then run Datamash 
> : export LC_ALL=C

Not only a work-around, but this is the recommended way.

However, I do note that other GNU utilities seem to ignore current locale when 
parsing input and always accept decimal point - I'll consult others and see if 
that is a recommended approach.

Thank you for reporting this issue.

regards,
 - assaf