how to get values to show as dollars

Question

Hi-

My current output looks like the below.  These values I want to show as currency.  Note when I try to do a formula ('$' + tostring(field, 2)) to add a dollar sign to this I get an error stating the formula resulted in a string but the field is numeric.

Additionally, if I just try to create a formula to add the dollar sign not to a string, '$'+ field I get the error - parse error at char(4) type mismatch in operator +

want to convert output to currency.PNG

martinding · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ksisterhen ,

Exactly as ShankerV pointed out, the problem lies in the fact that your original data type for your field is numerical and the formula tool doesn't allow you to update the data type in place.

So please use the Multi Field Formula tool, to either create new fields or change the data type in place to 'string'

danilang · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ksisterhen

Using the methods outlined by @martinding and @ShankerV will add the dollar sign to the values but converting the field types to a string also means that you no longer have access to any arithmetic functions, Total, Average, etc.  In general it's best to perform any formatting operations as the last step before you output the data.

Dan