list_to_float

[Dmitriy Kargapolov]

As I understand the name "list_to_float" means conversion _to_ float 
(not integer!) from _some_ list representation.
The current implementation is limited to string only argument - this is 
reasonable, but it's not clear why implementation is limited to narrow 
X.X representation? Couldn't float be expressed as "0"?

As to list_to_number idea, what type of result is expected? Depending on 
argument text representation?

James Hague wrote:
> Actually list_to_number would be a good standard library addition.  It would
> call list_to_integer first, then if that failed, call list_to_float.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-erlang-bugs@REDACTED [mailto:owner-erlang-bugs@REDACTED] On
> Behalf Of Håkan Stenholm
> Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 12:56 PM
> To: Demius Academius
> Cc: erlang-bugs@REDACTED
> Subject: Re: list_to_float
> 
> Demius Academius wrote:
> 
>> list_to_float("0") exited with badarg
>> it must work as list_to_float("0.0")
>>
> you'll have to do something like:
> 
> str_to_float(Str) ->
>     try float(list_to_integer(Str))
>     catch error:_ -> list_to_float(Str)
>     end.
> 
> or
> 
> str_to_float(Str) ->
>     case string:to_float(Str) of
>        {error, no_float} ->
>              {Int, []} = case string:to_integer(Str),
>              float(Int);
>        {Float, []} -> Float
>     end.
> 
> as "0" is considered a integer(), while "0.0" is treated as a float(). 
> But I agree that it would be much nicer if list_to_float/1 and 
> string:to_float/1 would do this by themselves.
>