NAME

Finance::Currency::Convert - Convert currencies and fetch their exchange rates

SYNOPSIS

use Finance::Currency::Convert;
my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert;

$amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR");
$amount_euro = $converter->convertToEUR(100, "DEM");
$amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEUR(100, "DEM");

$converter->updateRates("USD");
$amount_euro = $converter->convertToEUR(100, "USD");

$converter->setRatesFile(".rates");
$converter->readRatesFile();
$converter->writeRatesFile();

DESCRIPTION

This module converts currencies. It has built in the fixed exchange rates for all Euro currencies (as of December 2025). If you wish to use other / more currencies, you can automatically fetch their exchange rates from the internet and (optionally) store them in a file for later reference.

Use this module if you have large volumes of currency data to convert. Using the exchange rates from memory makes it a lot faster than using Finance::Quote directly and will save you the duty of storing the exchange rates yourself.

CURRENCY SYMBOLS

Finance::Currency::Convert uses the three character ISO currency codes used by Finance::Quote. Here is a list of currency codes.

Currencies with built-in rates (complete):

    EUR             Euro
    ATS             Austrian Schilling
    BEF             Belgian Franc
    DEM             German Mark
    ESP             Spanish Peseta
    FIM             Finnish Mark
    FRF             French Franc
    GRD             Greek Drachma
    IEP             Irish Punt
    ITL             Italian Lira
    LUF             Luxembourg Franc
    NLG             Dutch Guilder
    PTE             Portuguese Escudo
    CYP             Cyprus Pound
    MTL             Maltese Lira
    SIT             Slovenian Tolar
    SKK             Swedish Krona
    EEK             Estonian Kroon
    LTL             Lithuanian Litas
    LVL             Latvian Lats
    HRK             Croatian Kuna
    BGN             Bulgarian Lev

Other currencies (incomplete):

    AUD             Australian Dollar
    CHF             Swiss Franc
    HKD             Hong Kong Dollar
    JPY             Japanese Yen
    USD             US Dollar

AVAILABLE METHODS

new

my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert;

The newly created conversion object will by default only know how to convert Euro currencies. To "teach" it more currencies use updateRate or updateRates.

convert

$amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR");

This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro.

convertToEUR

$amount_euro = $converter->convertToEUR(100, "DEM");

This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" as the second (target) currency.

convertFromEUR

$amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEUR(100, "DEM");

This will convert 100 Euro into the equivalent amount German Marks. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" as the first (source) currency.

rateAvailable

$available = $converter->rateAvailable("DEM", "EUR");

Check if the conversion rate is available.

updateRates

$converter->updateRates("USD");
$converter->updateRates("EUR", "DEM", "USD");

This will fetch the exchange rates for one or more currencies using Finance::Quote and update the exchange rates in memory. This method will fetch _all_ combinations of exchange rates between the named currencies and the ones already in memory. This may result in a large number of requests to Finance::Quote. To avoid network overhead you can store the retrieved rates with setRatesFile() / writeRatesFile() once you have retrieved them and load them again with setRatesFile().

To update a single exchange rate use updateRate.

updateRate

$converter->updateRate("EUR, "USD");

This will fetch a single exchange rate using Finance::Quote and update the exchange rates in memory.

setUserAgent

    $converter->setUserAgent("MyCurrencyAgent 1.0");

Set the user agent string to be used by Finance::Quote, optional.

setRate

    $converter->setRate("EUR", "USD", 99.99);

Set one exchange rate. Used internally by updateRates, but may be of use if you have to add a rate manually.

setRatesFile

$converter->setRatesFile(".rates");

Name the file where exchange rates are stored.

readRatesFile

$converter->readRatesFile();

Read the rates stored in the rates file, overwriting previous values.

writeRatesFile

$converter->writeRatesFile();

Call this function to save table with exchange rates from memory to the file named by setRatesFile() eg. after fetching new rates with updateRates.

AUTHOR

Jan Willamowius <jan@willamowius.de>, https://www.willamowius.de/perl.html

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2001 - 2025 by Jan Willamowius

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.30.0 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

SEE ALSO

Finance::Quote

This module is only needed for fetching exchange rates. There is no need to install it when only Euro currencies are used.