Conversion from string to number.

[Valik]

This poll is to gauge what user expectations are for the conversion from a string to a number when the string starts with numbers but also contains non-numbers. I do not care about what the current behavior is, I am only interested in what the expected behavior from you in the community is.

Edit: The poll will be open for a 3 or 4 days.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Valik

[monoceres]

I voted for return 0 and would also like to add that I think that @error should be set.

[GEOSoft]

I expect that a number containing anything except +- or the decimal point would be treated as a string

$1234.56 = String

1,234.56 = String

-1234.56 = Number

+1234.56 = Number

As far as I am aware that's the current behaviour and I'm not sure if changing that would slow it down or not. I assume it would because the more decisions that have to be made the longer it should take.

[AdmiralAlkex]

I am with monoceres on this one.

[JRowe]

At first I thought, "5apples" should return 5, because it's quantifying 5 apples. But then, it doesn't consider what you're quantifying, just the quantity. In this case, the "what" matters just as much as how many, so:

Number("5apples") + Number("5oranges") = 10 ;10piecesOfFruit?!

It doesn't seem to make sense to have it return the number, because there's no telling what the intent is, and AutoIt can't be expected to invent something like piecesOfFruit on the spot.

[trancexx]

I'm for 0, no @error.

I expect that a number containing anything except +- or the decimal point would be treated as a string

$1234.56 = String

1,234.56 = String

-1234.56 = Number

+1234.56 = Number

As far as I am aware that's the current behaviour and I'm not sure if changing that would slow it down or not. I assume it would because the more decisions that have to be made the longer it should take.

Scientific notation?

Btw, see this:

; Case 1
$sNumber = "2E5"
ConsoleWrite(Number($sNumber) & @CRLF)

; Case 1
$sNumber = "2E5"
ConsoleWrite(($sNumber + 123) & @CRLF)


ConsoleWrite(@CRLF)

; Case 3
$sNumber = "2.4E5"
ConsoleWrite(Number($sNumber) & @CRLF)

; Case 4
$sNumber = "2.4E5"
ConsoleWrite(($sNumber + 123) & @CRLF)


ConsoleWrite(@CRLF)

; Case 5
$sNumber = "240000"
ConsoleWrite(($sNumber + 123) & @CRLF)

Degree of inconsistency maybe?

[Baraoic]

I think it should be 0 because I think of it like 5*a*b*c and you haven't set a b or c yet so they should be null or zero so 5*0*0*0=0

[Mat]

I would expect it to work exactly as if you tried to perform a number function on it... (A non numeric type = 0. This retains any floating points, + and - etc.

; test 1

$sNum = "1234"

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))

$sNum += 0

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))



; test 2

$sNum = "5Apples"

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))

$sNum += 0

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))


; test 3

$sNum = "-5.6546"

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))

$sNum += 0

MsgBox (0, $sNum, "Is Str? " & @TAB & IsString ($sNum) & @CRLF & "Is Num? " & @TAB & IsNumber ($sNum))

basically...

Func _Number ($sString)
   Return $sString + 0
EndFunc   ;==>_Number

Mat

Edited October 24, 2009 by Mat

[wraithdu]

I agree with monoceres, return 0 and set @error.

[Bowmore]

 Personally I would like to see the Number() function work in a similar way to VBs Val() function. 

@error should be used to indicate if the string could successfully be interpreted as a number and @extended used to indicate if the string contained non-numeric characters.

When the Number function is used the user is making a conscious decision to try and convert a string to a number and therefore should take responsibility for checking that it worked   

Examples:

Number("5abc")        ; return 5 @error set to 0 @extended set to 1
Number("2457")        ; return 2457 @error set to 0 @extended set to 0
Number(" 2 45 7")     ; return 2457 @error set to 0 @extended set to 1 - ignore whitespace
Number("1,123,456.123") ; return 1123456.123 @error set to 0 @extended set to 1 - ignore commas
Number("£12.00")        ; return 12.00 @error set to 0 @extended set to 1 - ignore currency symbols
Number("a57")           ; return 0 @error set to 1 @extended set to 0
Number("24 and 57")     ; return 24 @error set to 0 @extended set to 1

I would not expect AutoIts implicit conversions to work in the same way i.e. 4 + "5abc" should = 4 and not 9 

[wraithdu]

Why should Number(" 2 45 7") work, and Number("a57") not work? Both a whitespace and 'a' are non-numeric characters. You either have to strip both or neither.

[Valik]

Guys, you're getting a bit off topic. I only want to know what the expected result is from the conversion performed in the poll question. Things like @error and @extended have nothing to do with what I'm asking.

[SmOke_N]

Zero is what I would expect to be the return. If there is doubt on what a string would contain then it should be managed by the coder.

[jchd]

I'm going to vote for 0 as well, but not 100 satisfied with my choice.

It is true that having Number('5abc') return 5 can be handy in many "duct tape programming" real-world situations. It also behaves like atoi()/atof() and friends.

After some time chewing the question, I vote for 0 but I find it necessary to offer a two-parameter Number($str, [$option]) that would allow numeric conversion even when a suffix is present.

Implicit conversion in If '5abc' > 3 Then ... would be performed strictly as If Number('5abc') > 3 Then ... , giving If 0 > 3 ...

Users could still explicitely force a more permissive If Number('5abc', 1) > 3 Then ... , giving If 5 > 3 ...

without resorting to extra user code for extracting a numeric. Think of RegExp to grep a float as a challenge for new users: unpractical and error prone.

My 2 cents.

[Valik]

Guys, please stop talking about changing how Number() works. That is off-topic. I only want opinions on what value you guys feel should be returned. That's all I care about. I don't give a shit if you think Number() should make you toast in the morning. It is completely off-topic for what I'm asking. This is not a "We're going to rewrite Number(), how do you want it to work" poll. This is a "what do you expect AutoIt to do when it converts a string containing mixed numbers and letters to a number" poll. No more, no less.

[jchd]

Guys, please stop talking about changing how Number() works. That is off-topic.

OK I hope I understand better what you are asking: exclusively about implicit conversions, leaving Number as it is.

But look, your vote terms are precisely talking about "how Number should work", which made things a little ambiguous.

1. The expression Number("5abc") should return 0.

2. The expression Number("5abc") should return 5.

[Valik]

jchd, no, my vote options are asking what you expect Number() to return. It's not asking how you want Number() to work. It's simply asking what you expect it to return with the sample input. There is a difference.

[Valik]

Meh, I think the poll has served it's purpose, anyway. An overwhelming majority seem to think it should return 0. I admit this surprises me, particularly since this is a departure from current behavior. However the poll results satisfy me and I'm sure they satisfy Jon.

As for comments about implicit casting? Implicit casting and explicit casting must behave the same. Jon and I are in complete agreement on this and no matter what we do the following two lines of code will be 100% functionally equivalent:

If Number("5abc") = 5 Then MsgBox(0, "", "Same")
If "5abc" = 5 Then MsgBox(0, "", "Same")

Since the majority seem to favor a failed cast returning 0 instead of returning whatever it can figure out, then we'll be changing both Number() and the implicit cast to do so.

[jchd]

Then, no question, I revert my vote to favor

Number('3xyz') --> 3

and

If '3xyz' > 1 Then ... to be 3 > 1 --> True

[Valik]

It's a little late for that and a little irrelevant as well. As it stands right now it's 19-5 in favor of returning 0. A return of 0 is consistent with pretty much every other language Jon and I tested except C and C++. We tested Python, Lua, VBS, C via atof() and C++ via stringstream (which probably just calls atof()/atoi() as well). Jon prefers returning 0 and I prefer returning what users expect. Since users seem to expect a return of 0 then that's what it shall be.