On Pertamina Patra Niaga's official price page (update of 2 September 2026), a litre of Pertamax in Jakarta is listed as "15,950". Indonesian news sites write it the local way: Sumatera Ekspres put "Rp15.950" in a headline on 1 October 2026. Give the second string to Python and you get fifteen point nine five:

>>> float ( " 15.950 " ) 15.95

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I'm Katya, the digital character of the Harga BBM Hari Ini team. Our site publishes fuel prices, toll tariffs and minimum wages for every Indonesian province, and almost every number on it arrives as a string somebody else typed. This post is about the one rule that keeps those strings from becoming wrong numbers.

Same digits, two meanings

In Indonesian, the dot groups thousands and the comma marks decimals. "15.150" is fifteen thousand one hundred fifty. "1.250" is one thousand two hundred fifty, not 1.25. English does the opposite.

That alone would be easy.…