How to convert a binary string to an integer or a float?

Question

I have binary strings in the form of either:

<<"5.7778345">>

or

<<"444555">>

I do not know before hand whether it will be a float or integer.

I tried doing a check to see if it is an integer. This does not work since it is binary. I alos tried converting binary to list, then check if int or float. I did not have much success with that.

It needs to be a function such as:

binToNumber(Bin) ->
  %% Find if int or float
  Return.

Anyone have a good idea of how to do this?

Answer 1

This is the pattern that we use:

binary_to_number(B) ->
    list_to_number(binary_to_list(B)).

list_to_number(L) ->
    try list_to_float(L)
    catch
        error:badarg ->
            list_to_integer(L)
    end.