Re: Is there ToNumber?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg119613] Re: Is there ToNumber?
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:17:55 -0400 (EDT)
On 6/12/11 at 7:00 PM, hmichel at cox.net (Hans Michel) wrote: >The request is less trivial than ToExpression["1+1"] since, for >example, typical number format cannot be read into Mathematica >without the rather involved trick reported by Ted Sariyski. As an >example, >ToExpression["1e3"] ==> e3 The difficulty here is this string is ambiguous. While it is a common way to write numbers in exponential format, there are other possible interpretations. >ch = StringToStream["1e3"]; >timeNum = Read[ch, Number]; >Close[ch]; >timeNum >==> 1000 >I feel this complication as rather unfortunate, unless I am also >missing a simpler way to read in numbers. Simpler is always in the eye of the beholder. An alternative would be ToExpression[StringReplace["1e3","e"->" 10^"]]