There are several solutions to this problem in the thread starting at Humanized lists of numbers including an amazing regex.

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible
3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke.

In reply to Re: my head is reeling... by BrowserUk
in thread Number lists to number ranges (was: my head is reeling...) by Anonymous Monk

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