Question

May I know how I can escape a string to be passed into decimal format?

// currencySymbolPrefix can be any string.
NumberFormat numberFormat = new DecimalFormat(currencySymbolPrefix + "#,##0.00");

How can I escape currencySymbolPrefix, so that it may contains any characters including ‘#’, and will not be interpreted as one of the pattern.

Please do not suggest

NumberFormat numberFormat = new DecimalFormat("#,##0.00");
final String output = currencySymbolPrefix + numberFormat.format(number);

as my vendor’s method only accept single NumberFormat.

Answer 1

You can use apostrophes to quote:

String pattern = "'" + currencySymbolPrefix + "'#,##0.00";
NumberFormat numberFormat = new DecimalFormat(pattern);

If currencySymbolPrefix itself may contain apostrophes, you’d need to escape those by doubling them:

String pattern = "'" + currencySymbolPrefix.replace("'", "''") + "'#,##0.00";