How to always format a value coming out as two decimal spaces in Rails

Question

I am using Rails 3.2.17 and am storing prices for items like this (an example migration):

add_column :item_counts, :per_item_cost, :decimal, :precision => 8, :scale => 2

but if it's 23.00, it comes out as 23.0. I tend to create a method like this:

  def helpers
    ActionController::Base.helpers
  end

  def per_item_cost_formatted
    helpers.number_to_currency(per_item_cost, precision: 2, format: "%n")
  end

Is there a way I can specify that it always outputs formatted to be 23.00? Something like:

  def per_item_cost
    helpers.number_to_currency(per_item_cost, precision: 2, format: "%n")
  end

causes an endless loop.

Answer 1

Use number_with_precision:

include ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper

def per_item_cost
  number_with_precision(read_attribute(:per_item_cost), precision: 2)
end