Currency Converter Script

A lightweight Python tool that performs currency conversions using daily updated exchange rates. It fetches data from the open-source currency API developed by Fawaz Ahmed via the jsDelivr CDN.

Financial Disclaimer: This script uses daily cached exchange rates. It does not update in real-time and is not suitable for live financial trading or transactional environments.

Features

• Daily Rates: Automatically fetches exchange rates matching your system's current date.
• Format Ready: Outputs currency values as clean, comma-separated strings rounded to 2 decimal places.
• Error Handling: Built-in protection against invalid or unavailable currency codes.
• Case Insensitive: Accepts both uppercase and lowercase currency codes (e.g., CAD, cad, Cad).

🛠️ Prerequisites & Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.12 or later
• Libraries: requests (external HTTP library)

Install Dependencies

Before running the script, ensure you have the requests library installed:

pip install requests

Usage & API Reference

current_rates(amount, input_currency, output_currency)

Fetches the exchange rate for the current date and returns a formatted conversion string.

Parameters

• amount (float | int): The numerical value of the currency you want to convert.
• input_currency (str): The 3-letter ISO code for the base currency (e.g., "cad").
• output_currency (str): The 3-letter ISO code for the target currency (e.g., "jpy").

Return Value

• Returns a formatted str representing the converted amount (e.g., "10,450.50"), or an error message string ("Currency not available").

Quickstart Examples

You can import and run the function directly in your Python workflow:

# Example 1: Converting a whole number (100 CAD to JPY)
result_1 = current_rates(100, "cad", "jpy")
# Output: Prints and returns the converted formatted string

# Example 2: Converting a precise decimal number (540.65 CAD to JPY)
result_2 = current_rates(540.65, "CAD", "JPY")

Limitations & Data Sources

• No Real-Time Tracking: Rates are updated once per day by the data provider.
• System Clock Dependency: The script relies on datetime.date.today(). Ensure your system time is accurate to pull the correct daily file.
• Data Provider: Powered by the @fawazahmed0/currency-api.