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I would like to test strings to see if they represent numbers. This should include number representations with precision marks and scientific notation. NumberString is unfortunately more restrictive:

mylist = {"1.23", "1.23`", "1.23*^4", "Print[fail]"};

StringMatchQ[mylist, NumberString]
(* {True, False, False, False} *)

As a complication, I want to avoid converting the strings to expressions and testing with NumberQ, as some strings may contain code which is unsafe to evaluate.

How can I make a pattern like NumberString but which matches all of the first three elements in mylist?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you going to self-answer? I may dig into this if not. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Feb 3, 2015 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ Also, is your reason for not converting to expressions only for safety as stated? $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Feb 3, 2015 at 14:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard, no, I'm not planning to self answer. Yes, safety is basically the only reason - it would be okay to create a held expression for example. $\endgroup$
    – Simon Woods
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ "I would like to test strings to see if they represent numbers." How strict are we talking here? Do you want the string "EulerGamma" to be considered a number, or are you referring to number in the sense of NumberQ? $\endgroup$
    – Greg Hurst
    Feb 3, 2015 at 19:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard, the new pattern is definitely cleaner and it appears to work perfectly. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – Simon Woods
    Feb 12, 2015 at 19:22

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Edit: I came to realize that my original form was redundant. I now propose this instead:

p2 = 
  NumberString ~~ "" | "`" | ("`" | "``" ~~ NumberString) ~~ 
    "" | ("\\*^" | "\\*^-" ~~ DigitCharacter ..);

Test:

test = {"1.23`4.56*^-7", "1.23", "1.23`", "1.23``5", "1.23*^4", "Print[fail]"};

StringMatchQ[test, p2]

{True, True, True, True, True, False}
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  • $\begingroup$ Actually you should write "\\*^", otherwise for example "1.23abc*^4" matches also True ! which is annoying for safety reasons !! $\endgroup$
    – SquareOne
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ @SquareOne Right, sorry guys. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:36
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    $\begingroup$ I confirm you need 2 backslashes "\\*^" not "\*^" $\endgroup$
    – SquareOne
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ @SquareOne Yuck! Of course. I really made a mess of this. Thanks. I'm not sure that is the only problem however. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:40
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    $\begingroup$ @Chip I think I addressed that. If you find any other problems please let me know. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Feb 9, 2015 at 8:16
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RegularExpression may be helpful, like this

In[109]:= 
mylist = {"1.23", "1.23`", "1.23*^4", "1.22*^-2", "Print[fail]"};
numberString = 
  RegularExpression[
    "[0-9]*.?[0-9]*`?"] | (RegularExpression["[0-9]*.?[0-9]*`?"] ~~ 
     "*^" ~~ RegularExpression["-?[0-9]+"]);
StringMatchQ[mylist, numberString]
Do[StringMatchQ[mylist, NumberString], {10^5}] // AbsoluteTiming
Do[StringMatchQ[mylist, numberString], {10^5}] // AbsoluteTiming

Out[111]= {True, True, True, True, False}

Out[112]= {0.607035, Null}

Out[113]= {0.917052, Null}
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  • $\begingroup$ See comments on Mr Wizard's answer regarding "*" acting as a wildcard $\endgroup$
    – Simon Woods
    Feb 3, 2015 at 15:38
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I'm not certain how general it is, but works :)

Just for fun, I've assumed that FrontEnd should know what is a number and what to split on boxes:

StringFreeQ[#, LetterCharacter] && c[#][[1, 1]] === # & /@ {

 "1.23", "1.23`", "1.23*^4", "Print[fail]", "string", "1`1", "1`1`1"}

{True, True, True, False, False, True, False}

Where c is UndocumentedTestFEParser generously introduced to us by John Fultz:

c = MathLink`CallFrontEnd[FrontEnd`UndocumentedTestFEParserPacket[#, True]] &
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  • $\begingroup$ This looks very interesting. My original problem came from analysing boxes so this sort of approach might fit nicely. $\endgroup$
    – Simon Woods
    Feb 3, 2015 at 22:17
  • $\begingroup$ @SimonWoods :) great. Good luck then. $\endgroup$
    – Kuba ♦
    Feb 4, 2015 at 7:33

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