Error when converting string number to decimal in Crystal Reports: "The string is non-numeric"

Question

Problem description

In my report I get amounts in strings. The formatting is pretty unusual:

1. "" - is zero amount
2. "(200.00)" - is negative amount
3. "1,234.56" - is positive amount

I want to convert those strings to numeric values in more convenient way:

1. 0.00
2. -200.00
3. 1234.56

First I am doing some preformattings of the string amount:

local stringvar amount := Trim({PLD__ITEMS.F_18});

if amount = ''
    then amount := '0.00'
;

amount := Replace(amount, "(", "-");
amount := Replace(amount, ")", "");
amount := Replace(amount, ",", "");
amount := Replace(amount, " ", "");

Then I wanted to convert string into number using ToNumber or CDbl methods, but both result with the same error

// "The string is non-numeric"
//ToNumber(amount)

// "The string is non-numeric"
//CDbl(amount)

I has no idea what could possibly cause this error.
I can't find any corrupted string in the formatted amounts...

---

Questions

1. How could I fix my string amount to make ToNumber and CDbl works fine?
2. How can I convert string amount to decimal number without using ToNumber or CDbl methods?

If there was only displaying issue, I could use strings as there are, but I need to do some calculations with those amounts so I have to use numeric values there.

---

Testing unexpected characters in string amount

I prepared specific test to see if any of string amount value has unexpected character inside, but all results of below comparision returned True

// ---- test ----

amount := Replace(amount, "0", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "1", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "2", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "3", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "4", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "5", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "6", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "7", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "8", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "9", "");
amount := Replace(amount, ".", "");
amount := Replace(amount, "-", "");

// has not unexpected characters
amount = ''

// ---- end test ----

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Testing convertion

I tested explicit converion of string with point as decimal separator and again error occured (what is strange for me)!

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I am using Crystal Reports 2013

Answer 1

I found that Crystal using comma as decimal separator. (That was unexpected part for me!)
Below code works fine for me:

ToNumber('1,00')

Since now the solution was easy:

local stringvar amount := Trim({PLD__ITEMS.F_18});

if amount = ''
    then amount := '0.00'
;

amount := Replace(amount, "(", "-");
amount := Replace(amount, ")", "");
amount := Replace(amount, ",", "");
amount := Replace(amount, ".", ",");
amount := Replace(amount, " ", "");

ToNumber(amount)

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Above solves my problem with Crystal Reports report. The values of amounts displayed in Crystal Reports Preview were OK, but when I upload my report to SAP B1 application, the amounts times by 100. So...

It looks like convertions is wrong or SAP B1 interpretation of Crystal Report is crashed...

Ugh! What a mess...

So I came back to previous solution with separately converted integer and fractional part, which produce correct amounts on both Crystal Reports preview and SAP B1 application.

Answer 2

My idea to solve this problem was to split the string amounts on integer and fractional part, convert them to numbers separately and then add both to get the value.

local stringvar amount := Trim({PLD__ITEMS.F_18});
local stringvar intAmount := '0';
local stringvar decAmount := '0';
local numbervar result;
local numbervar decimal;


if amount = ''
    then amount := '0.00'
;

amount := Replace(amount, "(", "-");
amount := Replace(amount, ")", "");
amount := Replace(amount, ",", "");
amount := Replace(amount, " ", "");

if InStr(amount, '.') > 0
    then (
        intAmount := Left(amount, InStr(amount, '.') - 1);
        decAmount := Right(amount, len(amount) - InStr(amount, '.'));
    )
    else intAmount := amount
;

result := ToNumber(intAmount);
decimal := ToNumber(decAmount) / 100;

if result > 0
    then result := result + decimal
    else result := result - decimal
;

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Although this tricky solution works fine, my questions are still open for ideas and/or advices.

updated

Fix solution for negative numbers - fractional part should be substracted from integer part