String.Format and log.DebugFormat Currency

Question

I'm using log4net to output a formatted message. The following code

log.DebugFormat("Balance: {0:c} ", balance);

results in

"Balance: ¤1,000.00"

Why is the odd character appearing and not a $

Answer 1

What does this log for you?

log.Debug(Console.WriteLine(System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo.GetInstance(null).CurrencySymbol));

Answer 2

I would imagine that it is something to do with your regional settings.

Try something like this:

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(<your culture setting>);
log.DebugFormat("Balance: {0:c} ", balance);

If that dosen't work then you can always use the debugger to check the value of:

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.NumberFormat;

Specifically check the value of:

ansiCurrencySymbol

To ensure that it's set to the '$' symbol.

You may also be intersted in this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency%5F%28typography%29

Which explains what the symbol you are getting is.

Specifically:

The currency sign (¤) is a character used to denote a currency, when the symbol for a particular currency is unavailable. 

It is particularly common in place of symbols, such as that of the Colón (₡), which are absent from most character sets and fonts. 

It can be described as a circle the size of a lowercase character with four short radiating arms at 45° (NE), 135° (NW), 225°, (SW) and 315° (SE). It is slightly raised over the baseline.

It is represented in Unicode, as CURRENCY SIGN (U+00A4). In HTML, the character entity reference ¤ or numeric character reference ¤ may be used.