You can call the .to_s method on a Float to convert the number into a String
10.25.to_s # => "10.25"
In a Rails1 application, you can provide a Symbol2 as an argument to the to_s method. This allows you to convert the Float to a String and add additional formatting.
5551234.to_s(:phone) # => "555-1234"
In addition to providing a Symbol to the to_s method, you can provide an additional Hash3 argument to tweak the some finer details about how we want to format the Float.
1235551234.to_s(:phone, { :area_code => true } # => "(123) 555-1234"
1235551234.to_s(:phone, { :country_code => 1 } ) # => "+1-123-555-1234"
1235551234.to_s(:phone, { :area_code => true, :extension => 555 }) # => (123) 555-1234 x 555
1234567890.50.to_s(:currency) # => "$1,234,567,890.50"
67890.506.to_s(:currency, { :precision => 3 }) # => "$67,890.506"
100.to_s(:percentage) # => "100.000%"
100.to_s(:percentage, { :precision => 0 } ) # => "100%"
1000.to_s(:percentage, { :delimiter => ".", :separator => "," }) # => "1.000,000%"
Specifically the gem that makes this possible is activesupport, which is included in Rails. ↩
A Symbol is a Ruby Class that is similar to a String. Symbols start with a colon at the beginning. We’ll go into more depth in a future chapter. ↩
A Hash is another Class is Ruby that we’ll discuss more in a future chapter. For now, just be aware that this kind of formatting is possible and easy to do in a Rails application. ↩