If you really need to assign strings, you will have to force the scalar into a number afterwards

  DB<1> $d1 = '1230.1200';
  
  DB<2> print $d1
1230.1200
  DB<3> print $d1+0
1230.12
  DB<4> $d1=$d1+0
  
  DB<5> print $d1
1230.12
[download]

UPDATE: Please be aware about the limitations of floating-point-numbers as illustrated in the folowing example

  DB<1> $a='0.0000001';
 
  DB<2> print $a+0
1e-07
  DB<3> printf "%s",$a
0.0000001
  DB<4> $a=sprintf "%s",$a
 
  DB<5> print $a
0.0000001
 
  DB<7> $a='0.00000000000000000000000000000000001000000000000000';
 
  DB<8> $a=sprintf "%s",$a+0
 
  DB<9> print $a
1e-35
[download]

If you just wanna reformat a string avoiding any float-representation , you should better consider taking the regex from kennethk's posting!

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