Hi ,
I am facing a problem .. which looks simple... but took 2 days of mine.. even now it is not solved completely..

I have one variable..., want to know whether that variable contains number... canbe +ve or -ve ...

Values
+35 --- number
-43 --- number
45A -- non number
34+45 -- non number

please help me
Shihab

Look at the solution given in this post

Let me knows if it falters for any condition.

Vino

Another solution vaild only for integers, decimals not allowed

#!/bin/ksh
echo "Enter val : \c"
read num
expr $num + 1 2> /dev/null
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "Val was numeric"
else
echo "Val was non-numeric"
fi

rishi

Hi rishi ,
It won't work if the number is like +567
example expr +567 + 1 .. will fail


Regards
Shihab

if u r using tcl or perl there is finction calles isnumber

if [ isnumber $a ] {
}

A small edit Shihab,

#!/bin/ksh
echo "Enter val : \c"
read num
expr "$num + 1" 2> /dev/null
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "Val was numeric"
else
echo "Val was non-numeric"
fi

Note the double qutoes around the expression.

Rishi

how abt this,

not thoroughly tested
plz let me know, if it faints somewhere