Replace a Letter to 9999 and Convert to Number

* (Q) My string variable contains a letter. I need to replace the letter by 9999 then 
	convert the resulting variable to a number. 

* (A) Posted by Raynald Levesque in Dec 2002.

DATA LIST LIST /rec(F3) var1(A8).
* Use "," instead of "." in case your system settings use comma as a decimal separator.
BEGIN DATA
1	546.23
2	25.2
3	31.28
4	V28.00
5 	2B42.
6	20Z
7	29.C29
8	12345
END DATA.
LIST.

STRING var2(A13).

* Use INDEX instead of CHAR.INDEX function at older SPSS versions.
DO IF CHAR.INDEX(var1,".")=0.
* Use "," instead of "." in case your system settings use comma as a decimal separator.
- COMPUTE var2=CONCAT(RTRIM(var1),".").
ELSE.
- COMPUTE var2=var1.
END IF.
EXECUTE.

COMPUTE len2=LEN(RTRIM(var2)).
LOOP cnt=1 TO len2.
* Check actual letter ranges of your national alphabet.
- DO IF RANGE(SUBSTR(var2,cnt,1),"a","Z").
-   COMPUTE idx=cnt.
-   BREAK.
- END IF.
END LOOP.
DO IF idx=1.
COMPUTE var2=CONCAT("9999",SUBSTR(var2,2)).
ELSE IF idx < len2.
COMPUTE var2=CONCAT(SUBSTR(var2,1,idx-1),"9999",SUBSTR(var2,idx+1)).
ELSE.
COMPUTE var2=CONCAT(SUBSTR(var2,1,idx-1),"9999").
END IF.

COMPUTE nb=NUMBER(var2,F10.2).
FORMATS nb(F16.6).
LIST var1 var2 nb.