Roboticus@Roboticus-PC ~ $ cat foo.pl #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; for my $str ('AD 1650', '16.50', '1650') { my $num = $str + 0; # Convert to a number my $int = int($num); # Convert to an int print "string=$str, number=$num, integer=$int.\n"; } Roboticus@Roboticus-PC ~ $ perl foo.pl Argument "AD 1650" isn't numeric in addition (+) at foo.pl line 6. string=AD 1650, number=0, integer=0. string=16.50, number=16.5, integer=16. string=1650, number=1650, integer=1650.