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I am using spreadtab to prepare financial statements for presentation. However, I wish to present negative numbers in brackets (parentheses) within the table: -3,210 as (3,210)

I don't even know if this is possible. I am a total beginner as far as LaTeX is concerned, so please forgive my ignorance.

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It would be helpful to compose a fully compilable MWE that illustrates the problem including the \documentclass and the appropriate packages. That way those trying to help can focus on solution as opposed to setting up the problem test case which may not match how you are using it. – Peter Grill May 10 '12 at 17:56

1 Answer

up vote 7 down vote

An example of your input might be useful for giving better advice, but this code in the preamble seems to do what you need:

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\STprintnum[1]{\FPifneg{#1}(\@gobble#1)\else#1\fi}
\makeatother

The \@gobble macro swallows the minus sign, whose presence is tested with \FPifneg (section 3.2 in the manual of spreadtab).

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