>>>

>>>x = '0.8'
>>>? TYPE(x)   &&returns "N"
>>>? VARTYPE(x)   &&returns "C"
>>>

>>
>>The only thing I would add that has gotten me in the past is to check for 'E' and 'X' containing in the field. 1e9 will say it's a number because e gets defined by foxpro as exponent and 0x90 is considered hex and foxpro evaluates it to a number.
>
>Check the thread I pointed Yossi for more thorough discussion on the problem.
>
>You can have + - */ etc. (any expression that will evaluate as a number).

I got caught with:

x = '9/9/2009'   &Date data not numeric
? type(x)   &&returns "N"

I am working with fields in a table, so for my purposes if there is even one '/' in the field, it's not numeric, so I fixed this by saying:

do case
case AT('/',x) > 0
    *Do date processing
case type(x) = 'N'
    *Do Numeric processing
otherwise
    *Do String processing
Endcase