[erlang-questions] fread() for numbers - beginner question

[BranchingFactor]

I'd like to io_lib:fread() a number from a string.  Unfortunately, if I use "~f" for floating point number, then fread rejects numbers that don't have fractional parts:

> io_lib:fread("~f", "1").
{error,{fread,float}}
> io_lib:fread("~f", "1."). 
{error,{fread,float}}

(I find this very strange, since both 1 and 1. can be represented in a floating point number.)
And if I use "~d" for decimal integers, then fread won't read past the decimal point:

> io_lib:fread("~d", "1.0").
{ok,[1],".0"}

What is the easiest way to scan a number from a string in erlang?  Ideally it would scan any number in any input format and return an Erlang object that satisfied the is_number() predicate.

Thank you,

BF




      
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