in reply to variable has numeric value?

To test it, just copy and paste the above code to your text editor, and add the following at the beginning:
for ('-.5', '16F') {

and add a closing curly bracket at the end. Then try to run the resulting script and see.

لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ