Unit and Currency Normalizer — NL/EU Notation Parser

Parses free text with amounts and units in Dutch/European notation (e.g. "3.500 m² grond", "€1,2 mln", "250.000,- excl. btw", "15 ha", "2,5 ton", "12,5%") into a structured result: parsed value, detected unit, unit category (area / currency / weight / volume / length / percentage / unknown), optional ISO currency code, optional normalized value/unit, optional ECB reference rate, and optional EUR conversion. Pure parsing logic — no API keys required; the optional ECB rate lookup uses the free, unkeyed ECB SDMX service. Designed as a deterministic, side-effect-free input-processing step for AI-agent pipelines (before comparison, aggregation, or filtering) so parse errors (like a factor-1000 mistake from dot/comma confusion) never reach downstream logic silently.

When should an AI agent use this?

• "Convert '3.500 m² grond' and '15 ha' to the same base unit so I can compare them."
• "I have property listings in free Dutch text with amounts like '€1,2 mln' and '250.000,- excl. btw' — parse the numeric value and currency."
• "Before filtering real-estate records, normalize every area mention to m² and flag the confidence of each parse."
• "I have a batch of tender values in mixed currencies — convert each amount to EUR using today's ECB reference rates."
• "Normalize '500 l' and '2,5 m³' to a common volume unit so I can sum them for a logistics report."
• "Extract the numeric value and unit from a sentence like '2,5 ton staalschroot' for a materials-monitoring agent, and warn me if the parse is ambiguous."

What this Actor does

• Parses NL/EU number notation: dot (.) = thousand separator, comma (,) = decimal separator.
• Detects units across six categories:
  • Area: m² / m2, ha, km² / km2 (normalized to m²)
  • Weight: kg, g, ton / t (normalized to kg)
  • Volume: m³ / m3, l / liter (normalized to m³)
  • Length: km (normalized to m)
  • Percentage: %
• Detects currency symbols (€, $, £) and maps to ISO codes (EUR, USD, GBP).
• Detects multipliers (k, mln, mld) and scales the value accordingly.
• Returns a confidence field (high / medium / low) per result.
• Returns parseWarnings (e.g. no_recognized_unit, multiple_numbers_found_picked_first_N) when the parse is incomplete or ambiguous.
• Optional currencyConversion flag: when true, fetches the latest ECB reference rate and adds ecbRate, ecbRateValue, ecbRateCurrency, ecbRateDate, and normalizedCurrencyValue (the amount expressed in EUR).
• Batch mode: pass an array of texts (texts) — each item produces one dataset record.

Input

Field	Type	Description
text	string	Single free text with amount and/or unit in NL/EU notation. Backward compatible.
texts	array of strings	Batch of texts to normalize in one run. If only text is given, it is treated as a single-item texts array.
currencyConversion	boolean	If true, fetch the ECB reference rate for detected currencies and add ecbRate + normalizedCurrencyValue. Default false.

Output

{
  "sourceText": "3.500 m² grond",
  "value": 3500,
  "unit": "m²",
  "unitCategory": "area",
  "normalizedValue": 3500,
  "normalizedUnit": "m²",
  "confidence": "high",
  "parseWarnings": [],
  "currencyConversionRequested": false
}

With currencyConversion: true on a currency item:

{
  "sourceText": "$1.000.000",
  "value": 1000000,
  "unit": "$",
  "unitCategory": "currency",
  "isoCurrency": "USD",
  "confidence": "medium",
  "ecbRate": { "rate": 0.92, "currency": "USD", "date": "2026-09-17", "source": "ecb-sdmx" },
  "ecbRateValue": 0.92,
  "ecbRateCurrency": "USD",
  "ecbRateDate": "2026-09-17",
  "normalizedCurrencyValue": 920000
}

Fields:

• sourceText — original input.
• value — parsed numeric value (after multiplier, before unit normalization).
• unit — detected unit string.
• unitCategory — area | currency | weight | volume | length | percentage | unknown.
• normalizedValue — value converted to base unit (m² for area, kg for weight, m³ for volume, m for length). Only for recognized categories.
• normalizedUnit — base unit. Only for recognized categories.
• isoCurrency — EUR, USD, GBP, etc. Only when a currency symbol is detected.
• confidence — high (unit recognized), medium (currency without unit), low (unknown / no recognizable number).
• parseWarnings — array of human-readable warnings when the parse is incomplete or ambiguous.
• ecbRate / ecbRateValue / ecbRateCurrency / ecbRateDate — ECB reference-rate data (only when currencyConversion: true).
• normalizedCurrencyValue — the amount expressed in EUR (value × ECB rate). Only when both rate and value are available.

Use cases

• Real-estate data cleaning: Normalize area descriptions in listings (NL property ads, appraisal reports) to a single m² column for comparison or aggregation.
• Agent pipeline pre-processing: Before an agent compares property values, runs a budget filter, or aggregates tender amounts, run this actor to eliminate silent parse errors from NL/EU notation.
• Currency monitoring: Convert mixed-currency amounts to EUR using ECB reference rates for cross-border tender or budget comparison.
• Material / logistics parsing: Convert ton, kg, l, m³ to a single base value for reporting.
• Batch ingestion: Normalize a whole CSV/JSON column of free-text amounts in one API call.

Pricing

• Actor Start: $0.00005 (Apify default)
• Normalized record: $0.002 per result

The only external network call is the optional ECB reference-rate lookup (when currencyConversion: true); it is free and unkeyed, so there is no variable external cost.

Legal

No personal data, no scraping, no external data-source access during parsing. The optional ECB reference-rate lookup uses the free, public, unkeyed ECB SDMX REST service (data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service) with published open-data terms. No user-registration or licensing restrictions apply for this usage pattern.

FAQ

Q: Does it handle "250.000,- excl. btw"?
A: Yes — the trailing ,- is stripped, the value is parsed as 250000, and the decimal/comma rules are applied correctly.

Q: What about ambiguous currency like $?
A: Mapped to USD as the most common default. If the input contains an explicit ISO code (e.g. USD 500), future versions may prefer that.

Q: How do I convert a batch of amounts to EUR?
A: Set currencyConversion: true and pass all texts in the texts array. Each currency item gets ecbRate, ecbRateValue, and normalizedCurrencyValue (amount in EUR).

Q: How accurate is the unit detection?
A: Units are matched as a token directly after the number (e.g. 3.500 m²), which avoids substring false-positives (l in mln, t in beton). Ambiguous or incomplete parses are reported via confidence and parseWarnings so downstream logic can decide.

Related Actors

• url-to-structured-fact — Verifies a URL and delivers structured source metadata; pairs well when the text being parsed comes from a web source this actor has just verified.

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Zoekwoorden: parser, eenheid, valuta, m², ha, euro, bedrag, NL-notatie, agent-tool, normalisatie, volume, m³, liter, percentage

Keywords

parser, normalization, currency, units, NL, EU, amount, text-parse, agent-tool, developer-tools, real-estate, property, m², ha, ton, kg, m³, liter, km, percentage, euro, euro-reference-rates, batch

Changelog

0.2.0

• Batch mode: texts array input; each item produces one dataset record (text remains backward compatible).
• More unit categories: volume (m³, m3, l/liter → m³), length (km → m), percentage (%).
• Full EUR conversion: when currencyConversion: true, adds normalizedCurrencyValue (amount in EUR) plus flat ecbRateValue/ecbRateCurrency/ecbRateDate fields for MCP-friendly, non-nested output.
• parseWarnings: array of warning codes when the parse is incomplete or ambiguous (no_recognized_unit, multiple_numbers_found_picked_first_N).
• Unit matching hardened: units are matched as a token directly after the number (regex with numeric prefix + word boundary), eliminating substring false-positives (l in mln, t in beton, km inside words).
• Tests: ECB fetch no longer depends on live network — replaced with a real-response fixture (tests/fixtures/ecb_usd.csv); 18 tests green.

0.1.1

• V1.1 — ECB SDMX 2.1 REST-integratie (ecb.ts): bij currencyConversion: true wordt de meest recente ECB-referentiekoers opgehaald (https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/EXR) en als ecbRate (rate, currency, date, source) toegevoegd aan de output. Alleen bij valuta-items; bij fouten of onbekende valuta blijft ecbRate weg zonder crash. Live probe bevestigd.

0.1.0

• Initial release: NL/EU number parsing (dot = thousand, comma = decimal), unit detection (m², ha, km², kg, g, ton, t), currency symbol detection (€/$/£ → EUR/USD/GBP), multiplier detection (k, mln, mld), area/weight normalization to base units, confidence scoring.