David,

Probably i'm missing something, but,
if x='1.2' then: type(x)='N'
if x='1.a' then: type(x)='U'

Hugo

>Is there a quick way to determine if a character string represents a legal numeric string (contains only digits and maybe a sign or .)?
>
>I've tried using type(),vartype() and evaluate(), but they don't give me quite the right thing.
>
>Suppose I have a variable NorC.
>
>If it contains the string '1.2' I want mytypefunc(NorC) to return 'N'
>If it contains the string 'A.1' or '1.A' I want mytypefunc(NorC) to return 'C'
>
>EVALUATE('NorC') returns a character string in both cases.
>EVALUATE(NorC) returns a numeric value in 1st case but gives an error in the second case.
>
>Combinations of vartype(),type() and evaluate() do not give what I want.