alexsc01,

Use a custom format sub such as the following I wrote:

my $num = 244.83;
print "'" . str($num, 8, 3) . "'\n";

sub str {
   ## This sub is used to return a formatted numeric string.
   ## It has three arguments which are: the number sent, the
   ## desired width (including decimal point, if any), and
   ## the number of decimal places (optional) in that order.
   ## The number is right-justified.
   my ($sentnum, $width, $precision) = @ARG;
   ## Check to see if a non-zero precision was sent.
   if ($precision) {
      ## print to var using decimal point.
      $sentnum = sprintf("%" . "$width.$precision" . "f", $sentnum);
   } else {
      ## print in integer format.
      $sentnum = sprintf("%" . "$width.0" . "f", $sentnum);
   }
   ## change decimals to commas
   $sentnum =~ tr/./,/;
   return $sentnum;
}
[download]

Hope this helps.

Update: could move tr/./,/ to above else statement.
Results: ' 244,830'