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Money data type for .NET?

Asked 2010-02-07T02:00:11.563
36

Looking for a good Money data type for .NET that supports currencies and exchange rates (with related behaviour & operations).

  • Note: I started searching for the source code seen in print in the book Test-Driven Development By Example by author Kent Beck - he develops a nice Monetary concept. Unable to find the complete source online. The book does not contain one singular listing - instead it develops the source code over the duration of the book.

Although the book doesn't go deeper I would also like the Money class to support different rounding mechanisms because that also varies among financial institutions around the globe.

Edit 1: Clarifications

By "Money class" I mean a .NET data type that I can use to support money and its operations, complete with currency support and exchange rate calculations. Something like that is a higher level abstraction and might internally use a primitive data type. Also it might rely on a bundle of classes like: Money, ExchangeRate, Bank, etc.

It might be a value type (i.e. struct) or reference type (i.e. class) but either way it would be complete and support the aforementioned features.

Edit 2: Objectives of Money data type

(This also shows why a raw decimal, int or other primitive type won't suffice for all Money needs)

Objectives of a Money data type would be:

  • Safety features (i.e. prevent arithmetic on different currency types).
  • Store the currency type with the value (i.e. AUD, US, DKK).
  • Store formatting details (i.e. decimal grouping, currency symbols, etc.).
  • Conversion providers (e.g. exchange rate) to help round out the solution.
  • Reduce multiple currencies in an expression to achieve
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2 Answers

1

Have a look here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/lucabol/archive/2008/12/04/financial-functions-for-net-released.aspx

It provides a .NET library replicating all the excel financial functions.

Doing currency conversion is tricky, because obviously it changes continously, so hardcoded values will be more or less useless. However, you may be able to use a web service to access up-to-date exchange rates. This one looks like a good start. Even better, a REST-style interface to the same converter:

http://www.webservicex.com/CurrencyConvertor.asmx/ConversionRate?FromCurrency=GBP&ToCurrency=EUR

So that outputs the conversion rate of pounds sterling to euros.

answered 2010-02-07T02:16:49.077
1

I am the author of NMoneys which I think it might come handly. It has not been "officially released" yet, but it will change very little until it does.

answered 2010-10-20T12:46:55.320

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