This will match empty string '', '..' and other non-numeric strings, but will not match -1, 1.2e2, etc.
You better look in Perl Cookbook, Chapter 2, page 44. -----Original Message----- From: Ian Harisay [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 3:36 PM To: Gregg Allen; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Determining return type in Perl/MySQL I read the other responses. It is hard to determine what is happening without seeing some code. but to simply determine if something is a numeric value on could just use a regular expression: ($rv) = $sth->fetchrow_array(); if( $rv =~ /^[^0-9\.]*$/ ){ #-- the regex will work with unformatted integers and floating points. #-- do something because I don't have a numeric value. } Gregg Allen wrote: > > I have a complex, prewritten subroutine that is supposed to return a > numeric value from a MySQL database table. it actually works quite > well, most of the time, but sometimes it returns an undefined value, a > non-numeric value, or basically anything except a valid numeric value. > > This is OK in the sense that it just means they are records to be > ignored, but I am having trouble figuring out how to determine if it > is just a simple numeric value or a string or null, or whatever, so I > can decide how to process it. > > Any Suggestions? > > Thanks in Advance, > > > Gregg Allen > > > > >
