[GNC] Cut and paste does nothing if number formats don't match

[David Carlson]

I just learned something here!!!!!

On Sat, Aug 9, 2025 at 9:15 AM Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca> wrote:

> I've gone a bit down the rabbit hole on this and learned that in fact
> the international standard* separator for digit groups is the "thin
> space", and it's English (apparently plus most of the other languages)
> that has gone AWOL here. And it's been so since 1948 (and reaffirmed in
> 2003).
>
> I suspect this may all stem from Napoleon and his implementation of the
> Metric system combined with the French use of spaces as separators.
>
> Who knew?
> Paul
>
> * At the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which includes
> the SI, the official definition of the metric system.
>
>
> On 2025-08-09 9:56 a.m., Paul Kroitor wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Afaik lots of locales use spaces to separate thousands, including
> > common ones like French. See
> > https://randombits.dev/articles/number-localization/locale-list.
> >
> > Apparently there are several different Unicode spaces (no-break space,
> > narrow no-break space, etc) which are specifically used depending on
> > the locale.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> > On 2025-08-09 9:27 a.m., David Carlson wrote:
> >> Graham,
> >>
> >> There are certain data fields that that have somewhat quirky
> >> behavior, but
> >> the only one that has bothered me are the value fields in the
> >> transaction
> >> register where, for me, if I inadvertently insert or omit an intended
> >> plus
> >> or minus sign or if commas or periods do not comply with the
> >> definitions in
> >> my locale, then I get a surprise, usually a very different value than
> >> the
> >> value that I intended to insert.  This actually seems to be about the
> >> same
> >> as what you describe, except that I usually find an easier recovery than
> >> the methods you use.  As far as I know, at least up through release
> >> 5.11 of
> >> GnuCash there has not been any change to that behavior.  In your first
> >> sentence you use the word locale with an example that doesn't seem to be
> >> the difference that I might expect, eg swapping the comma and period in
> >> numbers depending on which country GnuCash thinks I am in.  For me, a
> >> space
> >> is always a separator between two different numbers.  I wonder if
> >> that is
> >> the source of your confusion.
> >>
> >> On Sat, Aug 9, 2025 at 3:16 AM Graham Leggett via gnucash-user <
> >> gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi all,
> >>>
> >>> I have various statements with locales all over the show, for example
> >>> "1,234.99". Gnucash wants the figures to look like "1 234.99".
> >>>
> >>> In the past this hasn't been a problem (other than the annoyance), as I
> >>> could correct the format in the register after a cut and paste,
> >>> however now
> >>> cut and paste no longer works - specifically the paste is ignored.
> >>>
> >>> What does work, which is more annoying, is to cut and paste to an
> >>> intermediate location like a text editor, edit "1,234.99" to "1
> >>> 234.99",
> >>> and cut and paste a second time. Now the paste works.
> >>>
> >>> Is there a way to switch this behaviour off?
> >>>
> >>> Regards,
> >>> Graham
> >>> --
> >>>
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> >>
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-- 
David Carlson