>

>lcStr = "W-4568S5B"
>lcNum = lcStr
>DO WHILE NOT ISDIGIT(lcNum) AND NOT EMPTY(lcNum)
>	lcNum = SUBSTR(lcNum,2)
>ENDDO
>
>? INT(VAL(lcNum))
>

>
>>
>>I have a character string representing Style which consists of the following portions:
>>
>>Color (1 letter with - or without -) Type (one or 2 letters) Number portion (could be any number but usually no more than 5 digits and not less than 2) then Stone (1 letter) then quality (number) then color quality (1 letter), e.g. for example:
>>W-4568S5B
>>E460D4
>>E94E
>>
>>Now, all these portions are optional except for number portion. My task is to get the number portion first, then try to search, if we have a file with the same number, same first portion, same stone (if it was present), different quality. Then if there are no files with the same stone, I need to do other string manipulations.
>>
>>Can you help me to get Number portion first?
>>

See my reply to Fabio about the catch with VAL(). Also I wanted something a little bit more elegant than checking the string <g> On the other hand, looking at each char of the string may be good solution. I need to think a bit.