The regexp I used was:

/^([+\-]?\d*(?:\.\d+)?)([a-z]{1,2})$/

Which is basically just a condensed version of Gilimanjaro's version, except instead of using:

([+\-]?(?:\d+(?:\.\d+)?)|(?:\.\d+))

to match the first portion of the input, I converted it to this:

([+\-]?\d*(?:\.\d+)?)

And my breakdown:

[+\-]?
We want to match a single positive or negative symbol either once or not at all

\d*
This extracts the whole number portion of the input, if the whole number portion is non-existant, that's account for by using * instead of + (zero-plus instead of one-plus)

(?:\.\d+)?
This extracts the decimal portion of the input. The (?:)? grouping allows the regexp to match a decimal followed by digits either once or not at all.

This regexp allows both the whole number portion and the decimal portion to be optional components, but prevents the need for alternative pattern matching.

In reply to Re: Identifying and parsing numbers by tekkie
in thread Identifying and parsing numbers by dragonchild

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