Testing for numeric

[Kericomp]

I have been using ABS(field) to test if field is numeric or text. This works for all text except words that start with the letter T. The abs() of "T" returns a value of 1. For any other letter it is blank. Why is this so??? Is it a special feature in Filemaker 4.1?

[BobWeaver]

It's interpreting the T as the boolean value "true" which is stored internally as the value 1.

Try using this test:

NumToText(TextToNum(field))=field

[Kericomp]

AHA! that explains why the letter "F" returns a zero and not a blank. thanks

[BobWeaver]

Also, Y and N will return 1 and 0.

[Vaughan]

Use the TextToNum() function. It'll strip out all text and just leave the numbers nicely.