Pulling Out Numeric Values from a Character Variable

[djbateman]

I have a list of lab values in a character variable, and I need to store all the numeric values in a numeric variable.  I thought I had it made when I found the NOTDIGIT() function.  That works great for integer data, but then I realized that I am dealing with decimal and negative values.  Is there a way to detect just these characters?  I know I could just use INPUT().  That would convert any number-like value to numeric, but for all the character values, I would be left with a lot of ugly notes filling up my log (NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line XXX column YYY.).

I have some example data below.  Is there  away to get LABVAL to the NUMLAB and CHARLAB, respectively, as I have them?

LABVAL	NUMLAB	CHARLAB
7	7
NEG		NEG
-3	-3
+		+
2-4		2-4
1.5	1.5
2+		2+
98.6	98.6
12.773	12.773
YELLOW		YELLOW
< 2.5		< 2.5

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

The easiest way would be to suppress all the usgly messages about invalid data:

numlab = input(labval, ??12.);

[djbateman]

I was never aware of the ? and ?? format modifier until now.  Thank you so much!