What is the most correct way of determining whether variable contains a number

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From what i have read, isnumeric is useless since eg. nan returns numeric output. Some answers mention to use str2double but str2double(2) returns NaN as does str2double("a"). So is there a universal function that is capable to eat both strings and numbers and tell you whether the string is a number (and if supplied with a number obviously returns true as well)?

Answers (3)

Chunru
Chunru on 28 Jul 2021
It seems that you have to write your own function:
[t, f] = isstranum(5)
t = logical
1
f = 5
[t, f] = isstranum('nan')
t = logical
1
f = NaN
[t, f] = isstranum('-512.3')
t = logical
1
f = -512.3000
[t, f] = isstranum('abc')
t = logical
0
f = []
function [tf, y] = isstranum(x)
if isnumeric(x)
tf = true;
y = x;
elseif isstring(x) || ischar(x)
if strcmpi(x, 'nan') || strcmpi(x, 'inf')
tf = true;
y = str2double(x);
else
y = str2double(x);
if isnan(y)
tf = false;
y = [];
else
tf = true;
end
end
else
tf = false;
y = [];
end
end

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 28 Jul 2021
You can use isempty() to determine if a variable has any variable of any class whatsoever in it:
if isempty(yourVariable)
fprintf('yourVariable has nothing in it.\n')
else
fprintf('yourVariable has something in it.\n')
end
You might also take a look at exist(yourVariable, 'var') to see if a variable by that name even exists at all (empty or not).

Stephen23
Stephen23 on 28 Jul 2021
Edited: Stephen23 on 28 Jul 2021
Let MATLAB do the heavy lifting for you:
fun = @(x) isnumeric(x)&&isfinite(x) || isfinite(str2double(x));
fun(2.3)
ans = logical
1
fun(NaN)
ans = logical
0
fun('2.3')
ans = logical
1
fun('NaN')
ans = logical
0
fun('abc')
ans = logical
0

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