onvert string variable to numeric variable from .csv file

[w4wxa]

My cell phone provider allows access to a historycsv file with usage data in it.

I access the variable I want using word$.

The variable comes back like x$ = "51"

When I try to use x = val(x$) it comes back 0.

How do you convert a string variable in a csv file to a numeric variable?

Thanks, Tom

[B+]

Could you show the JB code you are using to access the CSV file? If x$ = "51" then the val(x$) should = 51.

[Rod]

Just guessing but you probably need to strip the quotes from the csv data “51” is not the same as 51 and is why just BASIC is returning 0. Any string that starts with a non numeric character returns 0 in the val() function.

[w4wxa]

Here is my test program

open "history.csv" for input as #in
line input #in, a$
time$ = word$(a$,3,",")
time = val(time$)
print time
close #in

end

Here is a file called history.csv

"10/28/2018 1:07:34 PM","Out","51","850-877-0716","0"

[w4wxa]

Rod is right.
If history.csv looks like this:

10/28/2018 1:07:34 PM,Out,51,850-877-0716,0

numeric variable shows correctly

[B+]

Yeah, it is easier to see what is going on with some code.

I have to say, I wasn't expecting this problem with Double Quotes either, so thanks for heads up on csv file usage. Here is a function to extract string enclosed by Double Quotes and a way to extract the time from this csv file line:
open "history.csv" for input as #in
line input #in, a$
close #in

print "Whole line from csv file:"
print a$
print "OK"
print
tm$ = word$(a$,3,",")
print "Third comma delimited word$ is ";tm$
print "OK"
print
t = val(tm$)
print "The VAL of that 3rd word is ";t
print "Dang, fooled me (B+) too!"
print
print "OK fix this with a function:"
t2 = val(removeDblQuotes$(tm$))
print "Applied RemoveDblQuotes$ function then VAL on 3rd word is ";t2
print "OK, fixed!"
print
'get the time from this file line
sp = instr(a$, " ")
comma = instr(a$, ",")
print "The time found after 1st space and before first comma is *";mid$(a$, sp + 1, comma - sp - 2);"*"


' OK this function might be handy if all string values in csv file are enclosed with Double Quotes
function removeDblQuotes$(s$)
   if left$(s$, 1) = chr$(34) then s$ = mid$(s$, 2)
   if right$(s$, 1) = chr$(34) then s$ = mid$(s$, 1, len(s$) - 1)
   removeDblQuotes$ = s$
end function


[carlg]

Dec 27, 2018 14:36:29 GMT w4wxa said:

Rod is right.
If history.csv looks like this:

10/28/2018 1:07:34 PM,Out,51,850-877-0716,0

numeric variable shows correctly

If you know you have a quoted number, you can simply skip the first quote, and then val should work okay, like so:


q$ = chr$(34) 
fifteen$ = q$+"15"+q$

print fifteen$

print val(fifteen$)       'does not work

print val(mid$(fifteen$,2))    'does work

[Rod]

Try using “”,””as the delimiter. Most CSV files wrap everything in quotes. Originally it was only supposed to be fields that needed it but it became simpler to wrap everything.

[w4wxa]

That didn't work
the delimiter has to be chr$(34);",";chr$(34)
Works fine then