convert postbit 'posts' value to a format w/o commas.

[sde]

i'm trying to evaluate the postcount in the postbit within the template.

example:

<if condition="$post[posts] > 50">
  do this ...
</if>

The problem is that the number format for $post[posts] includes a comma seperator for numbers larger than 1,000.

The template engine apparently does not recognize the numbers past the comma.

I'm thinking I could create a plugin to re-format the number and create a new template variable named $post[posts_unformatted] or something like that.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on where to start with this? .. or perhaps there is another plugin that does something similar that I can look into how it was implemented.