In PowerShell, how can I test if a variable holds a numeric value?

Question

In PowerShell, how can I test if a variable holds a numeric value?

Currently, I\'m trying to do it like this, but it always seems to return false.

Answer 1

If you want to check if a string has a numeric value, use this code:

$a = "44.4"
$b = "ad"
$rtn = ""
[double]::TryParse($a,[ref]$rtn)
[double]::TryParse($b,[ref]$rtn)

Credits go here

Answer 2

Modify your filter like this:

filter isNumeric {
    [Helpers]::IsNumeric($_)
}

function uses the $input variable to contain pipeline information whereas the filter uses the special variable $_ that contains the current pipeline object.

Edit:

For a powershell syntax way you can use just a filter (w/o add-type):

filter isNumeric() {
    return $_ -is [byte]  -or $_ -is [int16]  -or $_ -is [int32]  -or $_ -is [int64]  `
       -or $_ -is [sbyte] -or $_ -is [uint16] -or $_ -is [uint32] -or $_ -is [uint64] `
       -or $_ -is [float] -or $_ -is [double] -or $_ -is [decimal]
}

Answer 3

If you are testing a string for a numeric value then you can use the a regular expression and the -match comparison. Otherwise Christian's answer is a good solution for type checking.

function Is-Numeric ($Value) {
    return $Value -match "^[\d\.]+$"
}

Is-Numeric 1.23
True
Is-Numeric 123
True
Is-Numeric ""
False
Is-Numeric "asdf123"
False

Answer 4

You can check whether the variable is a number like this: $val -is [int]

This will work for numeric values, but not if the number is wrapped in quotes:

1 -is [int]
True
"1" -is [int]
False

Answer 5

PS> Add-Type -Assembly Microsoft.VisualBasic
PS> [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information]::IsNumeric(1.5)
True

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.visualbasic.information.isnumeric.aspx

Answer 6

Thank you all who contributed to this thread and helped me figure out how to test for numeric values. I wanted to post my results for how to handle negative numbers, for those who may also find this thread when searching...

Note: My function requires a string to be passed, due to using Trim().

function IsNumeric($value) {
# This function will test if a string value is numeric
#
# Parameters::
#
#   $value   - String to test
#
   return ($($value.Trim()) -match "^[-]?[0-9.]+$")
}