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Date/Time: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:03:49 +0000



Post From: Critical Number Formatting Bug in Windows

[2014-10-14 18:01:07]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Sierra Chart is developed with Visual C++.

The Visual C++ standard libraries provide this function:
setlocale( );

Sierra Chart makes this function call at start up:
setlocale( LC_ALL, "C" );

This means the following:
A value of C specifies the minimal ANSI conforming environment for C translation. The C locale assumes that all char data types are 1 byte and that their value is always less than 256.

It has always been, that with this setting the decimal point delimiter is a ".". Not a comma. This has always been like this for decades now. We have always safely relied upon this otherwise we would have made certain to make the necessary call to force it to be a ".". We use a specification which is fixed and not affected by operating system specifications.

This is no longer the case. Apparently there is some Windows update which changes this behavior and starts using the system setting for the decimal point delimiter which can be a comma in some cases.

This is a bug and a very serious one because it creates all kinds of problems in Sierra Chart and there can be no doubt that so many programs developed for Windows, are going to be affected by this.

We believe we have the problem resolved in version 1201.

One problem created by this is that all of the historical daily data becomes corrupted.

If you see a Historical Daily chart not display properly, then you need to update to version 1201 or higher and go to that chart and select Edit >>Delete All Data and Download.

To prove the point, this is what needs to be called in order to use the operating system setting:
setlocale( LC_ALL, "" );

Sets the locale to the default, which is the user-default ANSI code page obtained from the operating system.

Sierra Chart does not use this. This is a serious Windows bug that exists.

Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

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Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-10-14 18:07:49