Thanks for your input. However it didn't help much. Let me give some more detail. I read -845, 4/3, and 1.25 into three variables $first, $second, $third. I want to be able to distinguish them: if ("it starts with a minus sign"){do something}; if ("it has / in it (fraction)") {do something}; if ("it contains three digits (may or may not start with minus sign)") {do something}; If it is too hard don't worry. Thanks anyways to all that replied.

In reply to Re^2: regex by algonquin
in thread How do I detect if a number has a minus sign? by algonquin

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