Formatting currency using display template in MVC - asp.net-mvc

Question

I found this post about Display and EditorTemplates for MVC:
http://www.growingwiththeweb.com/2012/12/aspnet-mvc-display-and-editor-templates.html
It creates a display template to easily display a decimal formatted with currency sign.
The model used in the example:
public class TestModel
{
public decimal Money { get; set; }
}
The display template:
Views/Shared/DisplayTemplates/decimal.cshtml:
#model decimal
#{
IFormatProvider formatProvider =
new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-US");
<span class="currency">#Model.ToString("C", formatProvider)</span>
}
In my website I have a helper class with a method to retrieve a formatted currency string from a decimal, so I would replace the above with something like:
#model decimal
#(MyHelperClass.GetCurrencyString(Model))
And finally the view where we want to see the formatted currency:
#model TestModel
#Html.DisplayFor(e => e.Money)
Output:
<span class="currency">$3.50</span>
I can implement this without any problem. But of course i have different views where i want to view a formatted currency. But in some cases I don't want to show the currency sign.
My question now is how i should implement this small variation without to much overkill in code.
Here is my current implementation:
I've changed my display template to this:
#model decimal
#{
bool woCurrency = (bool)ViewData["woCurrency"];
}
#(MyHelperClass.GetCurrencyString(Model)Model,woCurrency))
Of course i've also changed to GetCurrencyString method to accept this additional attribute.
In my view I now have to provide this attribute too:
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Money, new { woCurrency = true })
So actually I everything works like it should work. But somehow I don't like this sollution that makes the view more complex.
My question to you: Is there any other method to implement something like this? Or any advice to possible optimise my current sollution?
Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to apply DisplayFormat attribute to your Money property. For example:
[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:C}")]
public decimal Money { get; set; }
For more information have a look at these two links:
DisplayFormatAttribute.DataFormatString (The example at the bottom of the page uses currency formatting as an example)
ASP.NET MVC - DisplayFormat attribute

Answer 2

How about HtmlHelper that checks the ViewData["woCurrency"] automatically and outputs the correct result?
public static string Currency(this HtmlHelper helper, decimal data, string locale = "en-US", bool woCurrency = false)
{
var culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(locale);
if (woCurrency || (helper.ViewData["woCurrency"] != null && (bool)helper.ViewData["woCurrency"]))
return data.ToString(culture);
return data.ToString("C", culture);
}
Then:
#Html.Currency(Model.Money);