val function

val(

VALUE

DECIMALPOINT

)

The val( function converts text into a number.

Parameters

This function has two parameters:

value – text to be converted to a numeric value.

decimalpoint – decimal point character, either period or comma. If this parameter is omitted, the decimal point specified by the system’s Languages & Region panel will be used.

Description

The val( function converts text to a number, assuming of course that the text contains a numeric value. If the text contains a decimal point or exponent, the resulting value is floating point, otherwise it is an integer. If the text doesn’t contain a recognizable number, the result is an integer zero.

The val( function can also be used with a numeric parameter, in which case it simply passes the numeric value along. This can be handy when you don’t know for sure if a field or variable will contain text or a number.

Here are some examples of the val( function in operation:

val("72") ☞ 72
val("72.95") ☞ 72.95
val("2e3") ☞ 2000
val("  98  ") ☞ 98 // whitespace is ignored
val("abc") ☞ 0
val("234Z") ☞ 234 // non-digits at the end are ok
val("po234") ☞ 0 // but not at the beginning

If your text might contain non-digit characters you can use the striptonum( function to eliminate them.

val(striptonum("po234")) ☞ 234

If you are using floating point numbers, use the stripchar( function like this.

val(stripchar("ZED 387.38","--09..")) ☞ 387.38

Decimal Point Regional Settings (Period vs. Comma)

Some countries use a period to specify the decimal point in numeric values, other countries use a comma. The val( function will normally use whatever character is specified by the Languages & Regions panel in Apple’s System Preferences window.

In some situations, you may want to explicitly specify what decimal point to use, independent of the Languages & Regions panel. To do this, add a second parameter to the val( function specifying the decimal point character, like this:

let pi = "3.14159"
let circumference = radius * 2 * val(pi,".")

Or, like this:

let pi = "3,14159"
let circumference = radius * 2 * val(pi,",")

Of course, these are silly examples because you might as well use

let circumference = radius * 2 * 3.14159

or even:

let circumference = radius * 2 * π

But the point is that if you have text that contains a particular decimal point, using the second parameter will allow this text to be converted into a number correctly no matter what the Languages & Regions setting is.

See Also

pattern( -- converts a number into text using a pattern.
str( -- converts a number into text, with no formatting.
stripchar( -- extracts characters you don't want from a text item.
striptonum( -- removes everything but numeric digits from a text item.

History

Version	Status	Notes
10.2	Updated	Now supports an optional second parameter to explicitly specify the decimal point to be used.
10.0	No Change	Carried over from Panorama 6.0.