Dots or Comma's?

[JMulder]

Example: Europe uses 7,2 and America (and more) uses 7.2

Sooo..that's my question? What are you using when you design a site and why?

I am from The Netherlands and used comma's all the time, currently I am changing all of those to dots because it looks better

[Aes]

I use dots (or periods) simply because, to me, dots represent a value of the same entity.

When I see commas, it denotes two separate entities to me.

So when I see 7.2 I think 7 and one fifth, whereas when I see 7,2 I think seven and two..

That may be an American, or Western, point of view however.

[Saz]

Dots.

Aes explained it perfectly - well for me anyway.

[oblig]

Dots here in England too.

[JMulder]

England too? Geeez, do only we Europeans use comma's?

[Aes]

England is in Europe. You Dutch-Europeans must be the weird ones.

[oblig]

I think Germany uses commas. It's pretty mixed I think.

[geiger]

yeah. 'dots'. hah why not call them 'periods'? that's what they named it for

commas seem real weird to me. well, i live in the US. so, of course!

[Maelstrom]

Wow commas would just confuse me. We use commas to seperate 'different' things.

[Slash]

Like all the guys said before - dots -. I investigated this problem myself from the web sites usability point of view. It was just as you described it, European use commas and the rest of the world uses dots.
I used the "dot" myself in many ecommerce sites. But, it you still need - or just wanna use commas - make it clear obvious for the users what does the "comma" represent between numbers.

Sometimes, you might need to use the both of them, for ex: 15,250,600.50 where the commas are used to seperate the thousand's amount and the dots are used for decimal amount. Same can be written as 15.250.600,50 - which I never recommend to - but it still give the same info.

You can use whatever you prefer, but make sure to declare in written text to all your users what does those -dots or commans- means!

[redemption]

commas would really confuse lots of people... i had no idea until i saw this posts that pple actually use commas in place of periods!

[myfreedoms]

Why call them periods when you can call them "full stops?" (I just read an article on alistapart.com about em and en dashes and all sorts of wierd typography stuff).

When I first saw this post it really threw me off. I mean, I never really even considered commas to be an option. Hey, I just thought of what they are really called:

decimal point noun (ca. 1864)
: a period, centered dot, or in some countries a comma at the left of a proper decimal fraction (as .678) or between the parts of a mixed number (as 3.678) expressed by a whole number and a decimal fraction
(c)1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved

[seanf]

Originally posted by geiger
yeah. 'dots'. hah why not call them 'periods'? that's what they named it for

Because they are full stops

Sean

[five40]

Another vote for commas.

[Husain]

Dots (periods or anything else you want to call them) are used here in the Middle East.

[JMulder]

Ok, we are a bit wierd so what?

Anyone with too mcuh time on their hands going to create a script that checks for the hostname and then decides to use dots (a.k.a. periods) or comma's?

EDIT: five40, you actually need to press the VOTE button on the top of the post to vote

[five40]

Originally posted by JMulder

EDIT: five40, you actually need to press the VOTE button on the top of the post to vote

Yes, I know. I just skipped the voting part and wanted to say that we use commas too.
Actually the reason why I didn't vote is because I seem to get error message about invalid session every time I try to do that.

[Mark T.]

Surprise, surprise, I use comma's . The problem lies not in number like 7,2 / 7.2; it lies in the bigger numbers with a few decimals as well.
The number with either a decimal or a number bigger then 999 (which would need either a comma or a period) without any decimals, are pretty easy to understand for all people. It sometimes takes a person a while to get what is meant, but usually the message gets through.

The problems lies with what Sash already explained, the use of both in one number. This could cause enormous confusion.

As for the usuability point of everything, I think periods would be the way to go.

[platinum]

We use dots (or whetever you wanna call them ) here is aust. too...

[iTec]

Originally posted by five40


Yes, I know. I just skipped the voting part and wanted to say that we use commas too.
Actually the reason why I didn't vote is because I seem to get error message about invalid session every time I try to do that.

grrr i hate those error messages... EVERYTIME i vot i have to click the link like 3-4 times before it accepts that i do want to vote.

. all the way
, no way

[Aes]

Originally posted by iTec
... grrr i hate those error messages... EVERYTIME i vot i have to click the link like 3-4 times before it accepts that i do want to vote ...

Are you browing with the session passed via the URL? This tends to be a common problem in vBulletin; try using cookies instead -- I've never had any problems that way.

[paroxysm]

Yea the Germans use commas. It used to confuse the hell out of me when I was working. The emails never seem to make any sense! Then I figured out why. Heh. Tad slow. Am definitely more used to dots.

[Ian Glass]

Now, why do some people insist on using ` for larger numbers: 103`203`388.938?

Also another reason for decimal points (catchy name for those full stops, right?) is that if you have a decimal to the thousandths place, it could be confusing: 123,234.

[paroxysm]

Do they? Use ` ?? Gosh that looks even more confusing.

[ollspin]

England is in Europe.

yes, but no.