format problem in bean:write

[shah rah]

<bean:write name="employee" property="salary" format="$#,000.000" />

my salary is of type String and thus it does not work. Is there a away I can convert it into Double inside the beean:write tag. or should I go about using scriptlets

[Jim Hardin]

I don't know if this helps, but it seems to me it would be easier to make the "salary" Form Bean property/instance-variable a numeric type from the outset.
-Jim