[Gambas-user] Removing / Modifying IsXXXX() functions in Gambas 3

[Michael]

Benoit,
The IsXXX functions confused me because when testing IsNumber("123") I 
got an error similar to "Expected number got a string". It seems you 
needed to know the type before testing for it. I therefore do not use 
it. However I believe new versions of software should be backward 
compatible so I suggest giving the new functions a slightly different 
name. EG: IsNumeric.
Regards
Mike
On 24/11/10 22:08, Benoît Minisini wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm currently thinking about modifying/removing all IsXXXX() functions in
> Gambas 3.
>
> They mainly test the datatype of their expression. So, either the datatype is
> known at compile time, and there should be no need of testing it ; either you
> are using a Variant, and you can use TypeOf() to get the datatype of the
> value.
>
> I will replace them by some functions that will test if a value can be
> converted safely from a string by using localization. This is what most users
> expected from these functions.
>
> For exemple, in french localization:
>
> 	IsDate("13/2/20") ->  True
> 	IsNumber("3,34") ->  True
> 	IsInteger("3,34") ->  False
> 	IsNumber("3.34") ->  False
> 	
> Internally, they will use Val() and see if the conversion works.
>
> I will kept most of the name, so there will be a big incompatibility between
> Gambas 2, current Gambas 3, and final Gambas 3.
>
> What do you think about that?
>
> Who is using the IsXXXX() functions, and in which context?
>