strings (dollar.cents) into floats

[Steve Holden]

MRAB wrote:
> On Aug 31, 5:39 pm, David H Wild <dhw... at talktalk.net> wrote:
>> In article <mailman.218.1188577696.28954.python-l... at python.org>,
>>    Chris Mellon <arka... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I believe that to the degree that "real" accounting was done in those
>>> currencies it did in fact use non-decimal bases. Just as people don't
>>> use decimal time values (except us crazy computer folk), you're write
>>> 1 pound 4 shillings, not 1.333... pounds.
>> When I worked on the British Railways National Payroll system, about 35
>> years ago, we, in common with many large users, wrote our system to deal
>> with integer amounts of pennies, and converted to pounds, shillings and
>> pence in the output part of the system.
>>
> So you never handled halfpennies?
> 
Nobody was paid to the ha'penny. You could spend them in the shops, but 
payroll systems didn't use them. I am happy to say that I didn't become 
involved in financial programming until after decimalization (February 
1971, IIRC - I was in Sweden at the time).

regards
  Steve
-- 
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