if the *only* problem is that your data has "-" where j wants "_",
then dyadic ". can cope.
_999 ". mydata
returns _999 in any place where it can't convert the string mydata to
numbers, and it correctly deals with numbers expressed as eg '-3'.
As others have noted, if you also have things like embedded newlines
or tabs in the string, you've got to get rid of them before this
trick will work.
------------------------
Philip A. Viton
City Planning, Ohio State University
275 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus OH 43210
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
