Re: IsNumber function

From:
Mark Space <markspace@sbc.global.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.help
Date:
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:59:46 -0700
Message-ID:
<LZQDl.16300$D32.3828@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com>
Salad wrote:

I'm just beginning. I didn't find a IsNumeric() or IsNumber() method so
I wrote my own. The method can take a string, number or boolean and
determine if it's a number or not (I didn't check for chars). Could you
take a look at it and tell me what I can change that makes it easier to
use? I would prefer if I could use a format like
    boolean b = IsNumber("123");
    b = IsNumber("Mary");
    b = IsNumber("123.0")


Yes, just use static methods:

////////////// Start Code

package local;

public class NumberUtils
{
     private NumberUtils() { }

     public static boolean isNumber( String num )
     {
         try {
             Double.parseDouble( num );
             return true;
         }
         catch( Exception e ) {
             return false;
         }
     }

     public static boolean isNumber( double d ) {
         return true;
     }

     public static boolean isNumber( boolean b ) {
         return false;
     }
}
/////////// END CODE

Then test/use like this:

///////////START CODE

package fubar;

import static local.NumberUtils.*;

public class TestIsNumber
{
     //test the method
     public static void main( String args[] )
     {

         //string alpha
         String strVar = "Mary";
         System.out.println( "The value is " + isNumber( strVar ) );

         //string numeric
         strVar = "123";
         System.out.println( "The value is " + isNumber( strVar ) );

         //int
         int intVar = 123;
         System.out.println( "The value is " + isNumber( intVar ) );

         //double
         double dblVar = 123.00;
         System.out.println( "The value is " + isNumber( dblVar ) );

         //boolean
         boolean boolVar = true;
         System.out.println( "The value is " + isNumber( boolVar ) );
     }

}
// END CODE

You might also want to take a look at this (note the section where they
talk about checking a number format with out throwing an exception; they
use Regex. Also note that NumberFormat can check for number formats in
different locales.):

<http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Double.html#valueOf(java.lang.String)>

Finally, I realize that you are just starting, BUT: there's no reason in
a statically typed language to check if booleans or ints are numbers.
Booleans never are, and ints always are. Ditto for the rest of your
"IsNumber" methods, except the String one.

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