How do I identify if a string is a number?

Question

If I have these strings:

1. "abc" = false

2. "123" = true

3. "ab2" = false

Is there a command, like IsNumeric or something else, that can identify if a string is a valid number?

Answer 1

You can use TryParse to determine if the string can be parsed into an integer.

int i;
bool bNum = int.TryParse(str, out i);

The boolean will tell you if it worked or not.

Answer 2

I've used this function several times:

public static bool IsNumeric(object Expression)
{
    double retNum;

    bool isNum = Double.TryParse(Convert.ToString(Expression), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Any, System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo, out retNum);
    return isNum;
}

But you can also use;

bool b1 = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information.IsNumeric("1"); //true
bool b2 = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information.IsNumeric("1aa"); // false

From Benchmarking IsNumeric Options

alt text http://aspalliance.com/images/articleimages/80/Figure1.gif

alt text http://aspalliance.com/images/articleimages/80/Figure2.gif

Answer 3

In case you don't want to use int.Parse or double.Parse, you can roll your own with something like this:

public static class Extensions
{
    public static bool IsNumeric(this string s)
    {
        foreach (char c in s)
        {
            if (!char.IsDigit(c) && c != '.')
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

        return true;
    }
}

Answer 4

Pull in a reference to Visual Basic in your project and use its Information.IsNumeric method such as shown below and be able to capture floats as well as integers unlike the answer above which only catches ints.

    // Using Microsoft.VisualBasic;

    var txt = "ABCDEFG";

    if (Information.IsNumeric(txt))
        Console.WriteLine ("Numeric");

IsNumeric("12.3"); // true
IsNumeric("1"); // true
IsNumeric("abc"); // false

Answer 5

You can always use the built in TryParse methods for many datatypes to see if the string in question will pass.

Example.

decimal myDec;
var Result = decimal.TryParse("123", out myDec);

Result would then = True

decimal myDec;
var Result = decimal.TryParse("abc", out myDec);

Result would then = False

Answer 6

You can also use:

stringTest.All(char.IsDigit);

It will return true for all Numeric Digits (not float) and false if input string is any sort of alphanumeric.

Please note: stringTest should not be an empty string as this would pass the test of being numeric.