How about a combination of strtran and chrtran?

Use Chrtran to get rid of the numbers and decimals and spaces, then use Strtran to get rid of specific abbreviations. You will have to be sure that you remove "cm" before you remove "m", but you should end up with either an empty string (valid) or a string with an extra character (invalid).

Function MyString()
  lparameter cString
  lRet = .t.
  cNewStr = chrtran(cString, [1234567890 +-./'"], "")
  cNewStr = strtran(cNewStr, 'cm', '')
  cNewStr = strtran(cNewStr, 'mm', '')
  cNewStr = strtran(cNewStr, 'm', '')
  lRet = empty(cNewStr)
return lRet

This gives you a TRUE return if the string is valid. Note that I've included a space, +, -, ' and " in the chrtran() function. You may have other symbols to add also.

HTH
Barbara


>If I have a character string that contains numbers and non-numbers how can I pull out the non-numbers to see if the string is valid for me?
>
>If the string was [12' 2 3/4" + 23' 2.45"] this is valid
>if the string had a character in it except c and m for meter, centimeter and millimeter it is not valid....
>
>32cm + 23mm valid
>12' 3 3/4c not valid
>
>
>THanks