What is the correct currency formatting with zero amounts?

Question

I have couple of questions:

1. I am representing decimal values in dollars in my table as follows

   $2.30
   
   $0.15
   

   I need to know how should I represent 0 (zero) dollars. Which of the following is correct?

   $0.00
   
   0.00$
   
   0$
   
   $0
   

2. In some tables we use

   742 (9.96%)
   
   694 (9.48%)
   

   How to represent zero of zero percentage? Is this correct 0 (0.00%)? If not how can I represent zero of zero percentage?

Answer 1

In most cases you have three options:

• represent 0 values in the same way you represent another values
• not represent 0 values if possible
• represent 0 values as symbol(s) when it means absence of value

Below are examples of all options.

Option 1:

#    Product    Qty    Price    Discount (%)    Gross    Net
----------------------------------------------------------------
1    Hammer     1      $2.30    $0.30 (13.04%)  $2.30    $2.00
2    Crowbar    0      $9.95    $0.00 (0.00%)   $0.00    $0.00
3    Nail       10     $0.15    $0.00 (0.00%)   $1.50    $1.50
================================================================
     Total                                      $3.80    $3.50

Option 2:

#    Product    Qty    Price    Discount (%)    Gross    Net
----------------------------------------------------------------
1    Hammer     1      $2.30    $0.30 (13.04%)  $2.30    $2.00
2    Crowbar           $9.99
3    Nail       10     $0.15                    $1.50    $1.50
================================================================
     Total                                      $3.80    $3.50

Option 3:

#    Product    Qty    Price    Discount (%)    Gross    Net
----------------------------------------------------------------
1    Hammer     1      $2.30    $0.30 (13.04%)  $2.30    $2.00
2    Crowbar    -      $9.95    -               -        -
3    Nail       10     $0.15    -               $1.50    $1.50
================================================================
     Total                                      $3.80    $3.50

Answer 2

Well, This is based on for which country you are doing this project. So nothing is wrong or right.

Wikipedia Says

In the United States, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Pacific Island nations, and English-speaking Canada, the dollar or peso symbol precedes the number, unlike most currency symbols. Five dollars or pesos is written and printed as $5, whereas five cents is written as 5¢. In French-speaking Canada, the dollar symbol usually appears after the number (5$), although it sometimes appears in front of it, or instead may even be totally absent.

In zero value, Its better to keep the same hierarchy you following for other numbers. Although Decimal value is not good. 0% is much better than 0.00%