stringtodouble

Coerces values of type string to values of type double.

Prototype

	function stringtodouble (
		string_val  : string   
	)

	return_val [dimsizes(string_val)] :  double

Arguments

A string variable of any dimensionality. The strings in this variable must be ASCII representations of numeric values, such as "123", "1.23e5", "12.55E+15", "1.3455", and so forth. If a conversion from a string to a double value is not possible, an error is issued. NCL tries hard to make sense out of some strings that may not really represent a number, in a given string it looks for the maximum number of initial characters that make sense as a numeric value and ignores the rest. For example it would interpret the string "3.4etothefifth" as the value 3.4. Note that "2.9d+3" would be interpreted as 2.9, so NCL's double precision constant syntax does not apply here.

Return value

Returns an array of doubles. The return variable is of the same dimensionality as the input variable.

Description

This function takes strings that are ASCII representations of numeric values and converts them to doubles.

This function performs coercion that is not automatically available through the NCL grammar. See the section on coercion of types for details on NCL's automatic type conversions.

Attributes, with the exception of _FillValue, are not propagated by the conversion functions. See Example 2 below.

Special considerations apply to how missing values are handled in the conversion functions. See Example 2 below for illustrations.

See Also

stringtofloat, stringtointeger, stringtoshort, stringtolong

Examples

Example 1

Convert various string variables to double values.

begin
  a = (/ "1", "2.14159", "+2.71828E+2", "4e4", "3junk", "33.3d+1" /)
  b = stringtodouble(a)
  print(b)
end

Shows how some missing values are handled.

begin
;
;  Conversion does not preserve attributes, except missing value.
;  A string missing value is converted to a double precision
;  number, if that is possible, and used as the missing value
;  for the target variable.
;
  a = "1.23"
  a@T = "string"
  a@_FillValue = "4.56"
  b = stringtodouble(a)
  print (b)
  delete(a)
  delete(b)
;
;  If the target variable has no missing value
;  specified and the original variable does, the missing 
;  value of the target string is the missing value
;  of the original string.
;
  a = (/"1.23","4.56","7.89"/)
  a@_FillValue = "4.56"
  b = stringtodouble(a)
  print (b)
  delete(a)
  delete(b)
;
;  If the target variable has a missing
;  value specified and the original variable
;  has a missing value specified, the missing
;  value of the target variable is retained
;  even when the missing value of the original 
;  variable is convertible to a double.
;  Missing values in the original variable are 
;  converted to the missing value of the target variable.
;
  a = (/"1.23","4.56","8.99"/)
  a@_FillValue = "4.56"
  b = new(3,double,7.89d)
  b = stringtodouble(a)
  print (b)
  delete(a)
  delete(b)
;
;  If missing value of the original variable
;  ("missing" in most circumstances for this function) 
;  is not convertible to a double, then the missing
;  value for the target variable obtains.
;  Missing values in the original variable are 
;  converted to the missing value of the target 
;  variable.
;
  a = (/"1.23","4.56","XXX"/)
  a@_FillValue = "XXX"
  b = stringtodouble(a)
  print (b)
end

Errors

If a conversion from a string to a double value is not possible, an error is issued.