format() should have sensible default instead of causing error

[adamwdraper]

format() should have sensible default instead of causing error

[PikachuEXE]

Would be great to be able to set a default
Then format() => result with that default format

[cGuille]

Hello.

Considering the code, it looks like it has been planned:

        format : function (inputString) {
            return formatNumeral(this, inputString ? inputString : numeral.defaultFormat);
        },

        unformat : function (inputString) {
            return unformatNumeral(this, inputString ? inputString : numeral.defaultFormat);
        },

Anyway, numeral.defaultFormat does not seem to be initialized anywhere.
Setting its value does the trick (tested). But what the default value is supposed to be?

Maybe a better behavior would be to throw a proper error rather than an error about a call of indexOf on undefined…

I think the question is: in which case do you call format() without a proper format?

• if it is because you made a programming mistake, you should get (a proper) error;
• if it is because you can't choose a format yet (for example if the user has not given the information about which you can infer the format), it should use a default format… but which one?

I think the second case is already covered by the API: if you don't have enough information to choose a format, fallback your format variable to '' (or choose a default format at application level, using numeral.defaultFormat = 'YOUR FORMAT';) and it won't break the code.

So, IMO, it should throw an error, but a more descriptive one.

If somebody in the Numeral team would like to choose a way to solve this issue, I'd volunteer to make the fix if needed.

[adamwdraper]

For now i made it function as the zeroFormat does. it is a function so you can set the default with numeral.defaultFormat('$0.00'). It defaults to '0,0' since this is the format i use most often, but if everyone feels we should use another i am open for suggestions.

[PikachuEXE]

As long as default can be changed
Then it's users' job to set it properly somewhere which is fine