#!/usr/bin/perl

my $num_in = 1234567.89;
print "$num_in\n";
my $num_out =  
scalar reverse join "", map { s/(\d{2})\./$1,\b/; s/^(\d{1,3})$/\.$1/; $_ } (reverse sprintf("%.2f", $num_in)) =~ m/.{1,3}/g;
print "$num_out\n";

my $get_text = $num_out;
print "$get_text\n";

#this loses the 7  
# $get_text  =~ s/\.//g;  
# tr is similar
 $get_text  =~ tr/.//d;  

#this clunky method works to remove commas
# $get_text  =~ s/\./ /g;
#  # $get_text  =~ s/\s+//g; #won't work to remove spaces 
# $get_text  =~ s/\s+//;
# $get_text  =~ s/\s+//;

#this then works to change decimal point to . 
$get_text =~ tr/,/./d;

# now if I try to force numeric context it fails
#$get_text = $get_text + 0.00;

print "$get_text\n";