Quick TCL question – Numbers to String

[Rehman Masood]

I need to validate that the SSN is a 9 digit number and my inputs can be

Code:

123456789 (valid SSN, need to pass)
000000000 (dummy SSN, need to skip)
       0 (dummy SSN, need to skip)

So far, here is the TCL proc I have

Code:

proc formatSSN { incomingSSN } {
set outgoingSSN {}
if { $incomingSSN ne “” && $incomingSSN ne “000000000” && $incomingSSN ne ”        0″ } {
set outgoingSSN [join [list [string range $incomingSSN 0 2] “-” [string range $incomingSSN 3 4] “-” [string range $incomingSSN 5 8]] “”]
}
return $outgoingSSN
}

I am not well versed with TCL but is there is TCL function to convert string to number? If so what it is. I am wondering if I can convert string to number, then multiple it with 1, and check if the result has a length of 9, I should be good but can’t seem to find the correct function.

Thank you so much.

Topic

[Jim Kosloskey]

Rehman,

If you want to know the length use string length like this:

set len [string length $incomingSSN]

Then you can check $len or just ise string length in your if.

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Robert Milfajt]

Not sure about your plan to multiply by 1 and check for 9 length.  What if you get SSN = 0123456789.  Not sure if this is even valid, but throwing it out there as possibility.  I think you best using some version of regexp here.

Code:

if {[regexp — {^[0-9]{9}$} $incomingSSN] && ![regexp — {^[0]{9}$} $incomingSSN]} …

Hope this helps,

Robert Milfajt
Northwestern Medicine
Chicago, IL

[Charlie Bursell]

# Checks SSN is all digits is length 9 and not all zeroes

# If you had dashes you could remove them sith the string map command before hand

if {![string is digit -strict $ssn]  ||

              [string length $ssn] != 9   ||

              [string trim $ssn 0] eq “” }

   reject

}

[Rehman Masood]

Thank you so much Jim, Robert and Charlie! I think Charlie’s solution is what I will go with (its short and smart).

[Robert Milfajt]

I would go with Charlie’s solution too, wish I would have thought of it!   😀

Robert Milfajt
Northwestern Medicine
Chicago, IL

[Author]

Replies