> I'm trying to figure out how to clean up some form input for a
> currency value.  I'm using a decimal column to store the value and
> have a basic text input box for the data entry.

> My question: how can I sanitize this input data?

> For instance, say the user enters "$115.25".  Currently this is being
> stored as "0.00" since ruby detects the dollar sign and strips
> everything since it's not a numerical value.  Similarly, "15,000.00"
> is stored as "15.00" since the comma is detected as a non-numerical
> value. It does this as soon as I call "update_attributes" in the
> controller, so I don't think I can do much about in the model. By the
> time before_validation fires it's already too late.  I would assume
> the same problem exists for ruby Integers, Floats, etc.  So, what's
> the "Rails Way" of handling this?  Is there a way to clean the
> parameters in the model before rails actually sets each attribute or
> am I going to have to handle this in the controller?