[Chicago-talk] string operator question.

[Richard Reina]

I have a program that reads each line of a file.  The last line of the file may contain a number. I am trying to find a way to isolate the number within that line to give it value so it is a number and only a number and not a line of the file.

I can do:

$number = $_;   # lets say the number is 83848;
print $number;

and print number gives me:

83848

However when I try to do something with this number like pass it along to an external subroutine with process_number($number) The subroutine can't interpret it.

Do I need to strip the number down some how? I tried to play with chomp() with no luck.  Any help would be greatly appreciated as solving this would allow me to spend some time with my wife and kids.